Unknown Universe
by JibanyanAssassin
Summary: Eight Friends stuck inside an Unknown Realm, trying to get out. Yet this universe contains many Deadly secrets, places and mysteries.
1. Chapter 1: Daybreak

It started one day. We were just looking around the outskirts of Yuka. Our home region. It just didn't make sense, I didn't knew in my wildest dreams that a world like this existed. Let me introduce you to my friends and I.

Let's start off with myself, I'm a Riolu. I'm the leader of our small group. Next is my best friend Shinx, We've been friends since we were kids. Next our very smart friends Umbreon and Espeon. Now our quiet friends Zorua and Houndour. Now our fashion friend Braixen, she's obsessed with clothes and stuff. Now our last friend Poochyena he's fun to have around most of times. Now let's get to what happened.

It was just any other day, exploring on the outskirts of Yuka, Once again it's our home region. We all grew up there. Well besides Poochyena he grew up in Halso. Anyways, it was an any other day we were searching around for cool stuff, shiny stuff, ore shards, anything like that. We were out there all day till dusk. We decided to head home before it got dark. As we walk down the road, I got an uneasy feeling. Looking around I saw nothing, I thought I was imagining it and shook it off. Continuing down the road I got the feeling again. But stronger. I started looking around all over everyone noticed my uneasy vibe. Everyone started getting the same feeling. We started to speed up to get home faster. That's when I heard it. Some whooshing sound. It sounded like it was coming from the Forest. Looking in carefully I saw a strange light, dark purple light. Looking more clearly it started disappearing deeper in the forest. Shinx saw the light and started running to see what it was. We run after him before he got hurt. I started getting dizzy, next thing I knew was blackness...


	2. Chapter 2: The Different Universe

I couldn't see anything but darkness. I didn't know if I was awake or asleep. Many what seems hours passed when I woke up. Getting up, I noticed all of us were near Mystery Lake. Mystery Lake was a frozen lake within Yuka. Looking around all of us were together and I were the first to awaken. Getting to my feet, I got a better look at my surrounding. Nothing seemed out of place till I looked up. The sky was pitch black

"Night time?" I thought to myself. Starting to walk around, I found my bag containing all of my important items. Looking through nothing was taken I pulled out my Compass and Holo Map. I started pointing us in the way of home, it started getting very cold out, like it does in Yuka. After pointing us at home everyone started getting up. After many confused looks and chatter I started telling everyone we needed to get home. After that we started heading home. Now Mystery Lake to Emerald City was pretty lengthy, but we traveled far away before. After reaching a place called Diamond Road we took a rest. Diamond Road was made of Diamonds. It took years for them to make the money for this. We found a flat area and settled in. We discussed why we woke up there and what happened.

"So, any ideas?" I asked.

"Nope. It was so weird. But at lease no one was hurt." Said Shinx.

"Problem was, when I was chasing that thing I heard many strange noises like growls but nothing I ever heard." Added Shinx.

"Tell us what happened when you chased it." Braixen butted in.

"Well when we saw that orb like thing, I ran after it I thought it was a rare treasure. But when I got closer to it, the thing started making demonic noises. It stopped after a bit of running. I caught up to it to see what it was. When I got close to it, I noticed that it was pulsing with some powerful energy. It made me shake as it pulsed, I tried grabbing it but it blasted me back with force that it caught me off guard. Looking up from the ground it started shaking uncontrollable. After that it opened a strange purple like portal. I saw some strange black red creature bursting out of the portal. After all that I blacked out." Shinx said almost in one breath.

I thought "Maybe that thing brought us here?" I shared my theory with the others.

"Well it could be true. Everything was fine before we chased that thing." Umbreon Said.

After talking a bit more we packed up and started heading again to our home. Knowing that my theory might be right, I remembered it. Reaching the nearest City that is Snowflake City, we started feeling better knowing we are almost home. We were walking till Poochyena started talking.

"Uh, guys. Did you noticed anything about the sky?" In a shaky voice.

"What are you talking about?" I said.

We looked up and say the Non-existing sky. It was just a massive empty void.

"Whoa, what the?" I said under my breath.

"Guys is there even a moon? Cause I can't see one." Shinx said.

It was true no moon, no stars, no nothing. It was just an empty void. Everyone started to worry a bit.

"Who knows maybe just an eclipse?" Braixen said.

"Mhm, maybe. Just be careful it is getting hard to see." I said.

After the unsettling sight of the void above us, we continued through the City. We're coming close to our home, Emerald City. Still walking the darken deserted road, we saw the City in the distance. Now Emerald City is where all of us besides Poochyena grew up. The City was always lit with beacons, lights, and all sorts of beautiful eye catching stuff. And the best foods. Emerald City did have over twelve thousand population but now I guess there's Eight. Making our way down a steep hill, we got closer to the City. So happy to finally reach our safe area. Even with a massive population it was possibly the safest City in Yuka. Once down the hill we mostly ran to the City. Running pass the gates, we started for our houses...


	3. Chapter 3: Looking For Safety

I ran down the empty street of the City trying to get home. After reaching my house I quickly unlocked it and burst in. Looking everywhere I couldn't find anyone. My parents, Brother, Sisters, no one. I started to panic not knowing if they were okay. Or worst. I ran back outside to rush to my friends. Same thing.

"Were we really the only ones left?" I thought to myself.

I walked back to my house again. Sadden. Entering my house I walked up to my room and grabbed walkie talkies.

"In case we lose each others and needed to get in touch, or to regroup." After I grabbed them Nine in total. I started back to our meeting spot. As I started walking up to the rest I stopped. Feeling of dread. My friends noticed me frozen as a statue.

"Yo, are you okay Riolu?" Shinx said concerned.

"We need to get out of here." I said as calm as I could.

Everyone looked concerned and slowly accepted. As we were leaving the City, we heard bushes. Slowly reaching for my miniature knife, I pulled it out and said

"Who's there? We know your here." Trying to sound confidence.

The sound stopped. We all looked at each others getting ready to attack. I was the one who walked up to the sound. Slowly looking around the bush, there wasn't anything. Looking confused I started looking everywhere warning the others. Trying to find the thing making the noise. Not long after I heard screaming from Shinx. I turned to see a Snivy trying to sneak away. The Snivy was startled by Shinx's slightly loud voice.

"Please don't hurt me!" The Snivy said.

"Calm down, we're not bad." I said.

"Your. Not one of them?" It said.

"One of them? What are you talking about?" Umbreon said that hasn't said anything for the entire day.

"I thought you were one of those things that chased me." He said.

"Chased you?" Saying with a confused face.

"Yes. I was chased by a strange entity. It was completely black. It was holding something sharp. And it ran after me, I ran for what feels like miles. Before I found all you walking." Looking scared.

"Entity?" I said.

"Yes. It wasn't anything like I saw before. Nothing from this world." After hearing that I started wondering.

"Things that want's to kill everything. The void like sky. This isn't our world." Did that orb bring us here? What is going on here.

"Thing is your not alone. This place is filled with these things, they just want to kill." He said.

"I can take you to safety, it's in an abandon mall. My friend is waiting on me." He continued.

"Friend? Why aren't you together?" Braixen said.

"Well he's injured and I sent out to gather some kind of Medicine for him. He's very sick. One of those things got him." He said.

"Uh, I believe I have some medicine." I said as I checked my backpack.

I did have some but not much. I carry some at all times just in case one of our adventures went bad. Snivy looked at the medicine as I hold it in my hand.

"Yes! That's the kind I need." He said jumping.

"Well, we can travel to this area of yours to deliver this stuff." I said.

After chatting all that time, we set out for this mall. The only mall near Emerald City was the state mall. Of course the biggest mall in Yuka. Now after we left the City it started getting light out. Assuming it was getting day even know I can't see sun. Almost near the mall it started raining. Started out drizzling but not more then a couple minutes, it started pouring. Visibility was very low. Through the noise of rain hitting the ground, I heard something else. Something different. Through the rain sounds, I heard the faint sound of heavy whispering. I stopped and looked through the heavy forested area. Looking a bit longer I saw the faint glow of eyes. After seeing them I turned and ran to the others. I didn't mention it to the others. Thinking my mind was playing tricks on me. As we continued in the pouring rain, we saw the mall in the distance.

"Okay, we're nearly there." The Snivy said.

"Good. I'm tired of walking already." Shinx said trying to sound exhausted.

"Well if we're near it let's hurry" I said.

Starting to rush to the mall, we were stopped by a high pitch scream. We all stopped and looked in the direction of the sound.

"Oh no." Snivy said.

"Huh? What is it?" Umbreon said.

"We got to go. Now." Snivy said almost in a whisper.

"What? Why?" Espeon said sounding scared as well.

"The thing that chased me made the same screeching scream." Saying as he sped up.

"But it sounded normal." I said.

"That's what they do. Whoever they kill takes their voice. And use it to lure anyone to their doom." Snivy said.

"Well if your correct let's get a move on." I said.

As we pass the noise and left it behind, we started to the mall once again. Reaching the front of the mall the door seemed broken.

"No, not the door. This way." Snivy said pointing at a hole in a wall.

There was a hole big enough for all of us to fit. Entering the massive building, we followed Snivy as he lead us to this friend of his. Once we got to a heavy door. Snivy talked through the door.

"Hey Flame, it's me open up." Speaking through the intercom.

Hearing many locks opening the door finally opened revealing a sickly Tepig. Snivy welcomed us in, as we walked in they had a base set out. Food, water, and supplies.

"What's all this?" Poochyena said.

"Well in order to survive we gathered everything we could. This world isn't like ours. It's something different." Snivy said.

"Do you mind if we stay here for a bit?" I asked.

"No I don't mind. Make yourself at home." He answered.

As we put all our stuff down, we started making a plan on what to do next…


	4. Chapter 4: Searching

After we sat down we started making a plan. After many rejections and annoyance, we finally came up with one. After everyone accepted Snivy walked out.

"Well my friend will be better soon. I overheard your plan, I think it's good." Snivy said.

"We'll go. You should stay here. Keep an eye on your friend." I said back.

"I wasn't planning on going anyways. If you need anything right now grab it." He said.

After we grabbed our bag's and some supplies, we set out to look for survivors. Our plan was, search for survivors. I thought "If things want to kill everything in sight, we need to find survivors. Before those things hurt anyone else." As we grabbed our item's we left. Walking through the dense forest, I got the same feeling. The feeling I had when walking to the mall. I started looking around once again. Scanning the forest I noticed a shard of glass on the ground. I picked it up, it was very sharp. Sharp enough to cause serious damage. It was freezing. I didn't think much about it. Maybe someone dropped a glass item. "Flashlight?" I thought. Not thinking much more of it, I carefully placed the glass in my backpack. I started walking back to my friends. I didn't mention it to anyone. We were near Blackbird City. This City was famous for it's many things. We've only been there only twice. Walking down the road to the City, I heard a snap and clicking sound. As I looked down, I saw a trip wire. I screamed "Go , run!" We started running to the gates I heard firing next to me. As all of us got to safety I heard a loud scream. Looking behind me I saw that Umbreon got shot in the leg, by whatever was shooting us. I wanted to help but I was scared of getting shot as well. Umbreon manged to limb his way thankfully not getting shot again. Once he reached safety, he collapsed on the ground. We all ran to him. Blood was pouring out of his leg.

"Oh god! What do we do?!" Braixen said bursting into tears.

"Calm down, we need to fix this. quick empty all your medicine items on the ground." I said.

Everyone opened their bags and dropped all their items. "Okay, uh. Antibiotics, painkillers, some other medicine. And some bandages." I thought in my head.

Before working on his leg, I looked up and saw a trail of blood leading from where he was shot, to where he is now. Looking back down I checked his pulse first. He was still alive just passed out. Possible blood lost caused it. I started cleaning the wound then wrapped it up. We only had a few bandages, I used all our bandages trying to fix him. After fixing the wound, we started carrying him to a safe location. We went inside this abandon house. A few hours later I was called downstairs. Walking downstairs I saw that Umbreon was waking up.

"He's finally awake. Can you please check on him again?" Espeon said to me.

Another thing about me, I've been to medical training. So I'm the only one who knows about this stuff. Walking up to him, I checked on him. Ninety three Fahrenheit. He was getting better, it was dusk outside. Snivy was probability wondering where we were. We decided to spend the night at the house. Skipping a few hours, it was about midnight. Everyone was sleeping. I couldn't sleep, I just got up and walked outside. Sitting on the front porch, I just looked around. The roads were pitch black, hearing the plain sound of night. As I was focus on the peace and quiet, it was disturbed by a buzzing sound. I got up and became worried. Walking down the stairs of the porch, I looked around and noticed the sound was coming from a nearby broken down car. I looked in and saw a radio in the backseat. I try opening the door without making to much noise. I manged to knock the door off making little noise. Reaching in a picked up this radio. "Uh? I've seen this model before." I thought. Then I remembered the walkie talkies in my backpack. I took one out. Their the same model. The walkie talkies I got were from a region called Yalso. I got them free for winning a contest in a City called Pearl City. It was strange seeing this model in Yuka. I counted mine. Nine, same amount. I headed back before something happens. When I walked back inside everyone was still asleep. I never thought of it much, I went to sleep finally after what felt like forever. I was shook awake by Shinx. Struggling to get up after about an hour of sleep, I said.

"Not cool. What is it?"

"Come here." Shinx said in a low tone.

Walking down the stairs, I noticed something right away. The door was wide open, and it's freezing. I looked at our spot where we put our supplies. My backpack was gone. I started freaking out, I had everything in that.

"Did you leave the door open last night?" Asked Shinx.

"What? No. I closed and locked it." I replied.

"I think someone broke in, my backpack's gone." Continuing.

"I didn't hear anything." Braixen said.

After talking a bit more, I walked outside. Walking around it was about one in the afternoon. Reaching a point I turned back. Thinking that everyone was getting ready to go back to the mall. Walking back, I was knocked face first by something heavy hitting my back. Looking back I saw my bag laying on the ground. I looked around to see who threw it. No one was in sight. Looking through the contents, nothing was missing. I was creep out, I just grabbed the bag and ran back to the others. Reaching the house the told them about the backpack. They all were confused. Glad I had my bag back, we started heading back to the mall. We walked all the way back within an hour. Entering the hole, we walked back to the room. When the door opens, I fell over with Umbreon on top of me. Out of everyone I had to carry him back. Snivy ran over to find me trying to get Umbreon off me. Snivy looked at us surprised.

"What happened to him?!" Snivy said.

"We were at Blackbird when a trip wire was set off. He was shot." I said trying to catch air.

Setting our stuff down, we explained what happened and the thing that happened last night. After explaining everything, it was getting dark again. It seemed this world or universe. Whatever it is has a quicker day and night cycle. Day rises about five hours ago. As day fallen it was quiet. Night had no noise whatsoever. Looking outside a busted window, I just stared up to the night sky. Wonder what we'll do next...


	5. Chapter 5: Running Scared

Day once again arrived. I walked to the meeting room. Everyone was there, even the Tepig that was in a room for two days. I sat down and wondered what was going on.

"I seen possible survivors yesterday night. Looked like a Litleo and Furfrou." Snivy said.

"Any weapons, or anything seen on them?" I replied.

"They seemed to only have simple items. They seemed hurt." He said.

"I guess we'll go over to them then." I answer back.

"If they're hurt, we should help them." I thought in my head. I got some medical supplies and headed out. Leaving the mall, I started going to where he said they were. After searching around, I found a campfire. "Fresh. I think I'm near." Thinking in my head. Looking at the ground I noticed footprints. I followed them. Little bit later I found them. They were indeed injured. One of them were. The Litleo had a deep bite wound where his ribs were. Blood everywhere. I wasn't sure if the Litleo was dead. He was mostly laying in a puddle of blood. I stepped on a stick or something, it made a loud snap sound. The Furfrou turned back. Terror in his eyes.

"Stay back!" He shouted at me.

"Wait, I want to help you." Calmly Answering.

"No, no, no! Just stay back! I don't trust anyone! Your just acting like a Riolu!" He continued shouting.

"Acting? What are you talking about? I'm just a normal Riolu." Trying to understand what's going on.

"I've seen those things, They disguise as anything!" Looking back to his friend.

"What happened to him?" I questioned.

"He was attacked by those things. That thing was in a body of a Charmander. I thought he needed help when we approach him, within a second the thing dashed and tore half of my friends side off." Tending to his friend again.

He wasn't going to make it. To much blood. In fact his entire side was gone. It was just a mess. But I wanted to check if there's any hope, I'll take it.

"Let me take a look." I said.

I moved up to the dying Litleo, I wasn't going to waste what we had on him. His condition was too much. I turned and said.

"There's no hope for him. He stopped breathing about ten minutes ago. He's gone."

"B- but. He can't." Furfrou cried.

I did feel bad. Losing someone you love. But this world did it. Whatever this world is, we need to get out quick. Before we all end up dead. I spoke.

"Listen I have other survivors. I can bring you to safety."

"What about Litleo." He said.

"Bury him." I simply replied.

After half an hour we finally buried his decease friend. Death awaits everywhere in this place. Always aware. We started walking back to our safe zone when we stopped in our tracks. The faint sound of footsteps. We looked back to find a black figure that looked very much like Litleo. It slowly walked to us. I was confused with what was happening.

"Litleo?" Furfrou said.

"Back away slowly. That isn't your friend anymore." Whispering

Before we did anything the figure tackled me to the ground. He tried to bite and scratch me. I kicked him off and quickly reached inside my bag. I grabbed the sharp glass shard, as much as I didn't want to I forced the shard down on whatever this creature now was. After many stabs to the chest it stopped moving. I was covered in blood. I scooted back about ten feet, to get away from whatever that thing was. Furfrou was just watching in horror as his friend was killed twice. I pulled him away before anything else happens. We started heading back to the mall. Furfrou was quiet the entire way back. I was still covered in blood, I didn't want to catch infection so I cleaned myself off at a pond before returning. Once at the mall everyone looked as I brought a new survivor.

"One?" Snivy asked.

Furfrou looked down and walked away.

"Uh, the other didn't make it. One of those things got him before I arrived. He died. Twice." I said.

"Twice?" Answering back.

"We buried him, but he came back as a black creature. Attacked me but I'm fine. I ended his suffering." Answering back to him.

"Keep an eye on him. He just watched as he died twice." Continuing.

Continuing to talk, we heard a loud thud outside. We looked at the metal busted doors. Once again a loud thud.

"Uh, what is that?" Asked Shinx.

"I don't know, were you followed?" Snivy added on.

"No I don't think so." I said.

The pounding got louder till it echoed throughout the mall. I was starting to wonder if it's another survivor. I carefully proceed to the doors. When reaching the doors I heard whispers. It seemed like normal survivors. Maybe. When I knocked on the door the whispers stopped immediately. I grew concerned. I silently ran over to the tinted windows. Nothing was in sight, looking around there was nothing. After a minute of silent, I went to turn around when I heard glass shatter. Everyone jumped at the sudden sound. The window downstairs were broken. Looking down everyone saw a heavy axe. The blade looked insanely sharp. Even barely touching the blade will cause bleeding. Houndour picked it up. After picking it up something jumped through the window. The entity tackled Houndour and slashed him across the chest. Shinx quickly bashed a pipe over it's head. The force sent him flying off Houndour. It quickly got up and went for me. As it jumped I quickly kicked it in the chest. I noticed that the entity had red eyes. After he failed to attack me it looked at us and jumped out the window. Braixen made a makeshift bandage over Houndour as we fought off this demon spawn.

"I- I'm okay." Houndour whimpered.

"We need to get out of here. I thought this place was safe. But it was a matter of time before they found us." Snivy said.

"Houndour are you okay to continue?" Snivy questioned.

"I. I think." Houndour answered back.

We're now going to leave the only place we felt safe. We gathered everything and headed out. Umbreon was finally better. Enough to continue. Everyone was ready to go. We walked outside the building. We needed to search for a new place. A safe place. It won't be that easy though. When you die. You come back as those entities that just hunt and kill. It won't be easy without good weapons. We started walking once again through the abandoned wastes. Searching for a new place, and trying not to die. "How much longer will we be in here?" I thought to myself. "All our families are probability out looking for us. I hope we make it out all together." Thinking these thoughts as we walk through the empty roads...


	6. Chapter 6: Gearing Up

Many days of hiding trying to reach safety. Avoiding any sight of trouble, we all wanted to head to crystal city. The city had a massive lake, during full moons the lake glittered looking like crystals. We had a few more days of travel. From Yuka mall to crystal lake, it was about thirty miles. Reaching a certain point we stopped. Trying to find where we were, I started scanning the forest areas, for any threat. Not finding anything we setup our campsite for tonight. Going to sleep, I thought what might happen during our sleep. Slowly entering a state of half sleep, I heard zipping from my tent. I looked up dazed. I saw Shinx slowly opening my tent. I thought he was trying not to wake me. I pretended to sleep. Hearing him walking inside my tent, I opened my eyes just a bit. I saw him scavenging inside my bag. Taking a couple items that I couldn't see, he walked outside again. Waiting a couple minutes I got up. Looking in my bag I noticed he took my flashlight, a couple food items, and most important, my map with a compass. I grew worried that was all our important items. I thought why he needed these items. Getting up I unzipped my tent looking outside everyone was still asleep. I saw Shinx's paw prints. Following them it took me about about a couple minutes to find him. Shinx was standing there looking over my items. Slowly walking up to him, I started hearing him talking under his breath. Walking up till I was in arms reach, I grabbed and yanked him back. Pinning him down to the ground I said.

"What are you doing? That's all our things, and your running in the dark alone."

He stood there silently. Still pinning him down. It started raining also, I grabbed my stuff quickly. As I was picking up my stuff Shinx got up. I felt a forceful bash to my head, I fell hard on the ground. With blurry vision the last thing I noticed was Blood, and Shinx looking over me. He grabbed everything. Looking at me one last time he dashed away, after that I fell unconscious. Waking up four hours later, I just laying there on the ground, I was weaken. Barely able to move my head. My vision was just filled with red, I thought I was going to die. Never thought I would of died like this. My best friend. Sounds were coming from my left, I looked over barely. I saw my group. They all saw me laying there, they all rushed to me. My head was open still bleeding, I didn't know how I was still alive. They all lifted me carefully not to injure me anymore then I I'm. Still awake I looked and saw a river of blood. I then passed out again. Another couple of hours or a day. I woke up, tying to stand up. Still very dizzy due to all the blood I lost. I was just happy I was alive. Messily opening the tent I stepped out. Looking around I saw nothing, non of my friends, nor Shinx. I had betrayal inside me. Walking to the place I found Shinx, I noticed all the evidence of last night wasn't there. It doesn't seemed like anything happened, even the blood was gone. I touched my head and noticed a big bandage wrapped around my head. It did happen.

"Where did everyone go then?" I thought in my head.

Thinking this I went back to the campsite. Looking through all tents, nothing was in them. Even my own things were gone.

"Did they leave without me? No, no it couldn't. Please don't let it be." Thinking to myself.

I was still weak from the blood lost, so I went back to sleep. I woke up hearing sounds of talking and crunching. I got up hopefully it wasn't anything bad. I manged to hide in the tent somehow. When I heard the one I'm in start unzipping. It was dark so I couldn't make out who was entering. When they entered I punched them somewhere near the face. I heard a loud ow coming from the thing. Then I heard.

"What was that for?!"

I quickly noticed it was Braixen's voice.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry!" I blurted out.

Then I had a flashlight in my face. It was so blinding. It flashed off. After that I was dragged outside, seeing everyone looking at me. Some looking in pain, probably due to my head. Shinx was standing next to them.

"You son of a-" Was all I manged to say, getting up then quickly falling down.

Shinx tried looking confused. But after what he did, all I could think of was revenge.

"What did I do?" He said.

"He's just confused on what attacked him. If he was attacked." Snivy pushed pass everyone.

I just lay there. Helpless, when my group looked down on me. I never went down like this. Not when fighting other teams, or defeating the leader of team vortex. And yet I was brought down by my closest friend. I felt defeated, giving up. I'm going to die in this universe never going to see my little sisters, brothers, even my parents anymore.

"I wasn't meant for this." Thinking this, falling unconscious. I just found out I started bleeding again from hitting the ground so hard. Not caring much right now, I fell asleep into a painless state. As I did I heard them screaming that they needed to do something. Before it was to late.

I opened my eyes to see space. Just stars and void all around me. I thought this was heaven of this demonic world. When I finally gain full control, I saw a white dot in the distance. It wasn't a star, I tried floating or walking to it. After getting close to it I found it was a piece of paper. I tried getting a good view it said "Midnight Island" Looking at it for a bit longer, I started losing vision, I was going back to real life. Moments later I woke up breaking out in a cold sweat. Looking around I was safe and sound in my tent. Quickly getting up, it was complete dark. Night time was once again here. I looked around and saw everything was completely normal. All our items were here, everyone was here, even all my items were here. My head was completely healed and no bandages. I was starting to freak out.

"Was that all just a sick dream?" I thought to myself.

"But I had a dream in a dream? And that note said Midnight Island." Continuing.

"I've only heard about, Midnight Forest and Midnight Trail. But never Midnight Island. Never heard of it at all." Questioning where it even was.

Unzipping my tent to get some fresh air after the horror show, I saw sunlight. Still no sun or moon.

"I guess I should walk off this nausea feeling. Felt like I was going to puke." I thought right away, after taking a step.

Trying to walk in a straight line even know it felt like my insides were exploding, I walked back to the place I was attacked supposedly where I was attacked, I got a massive headache as soon as I walked up to it. The headache made me throw up about five pounds. After I was done I had enough and headed back. Walking back still sick as ever, I noticed Snivy was up already. As I walked up he noticed me.

"Your up early huh?" Smiling.

"Yeah. Just took a walk." I replied still trying to walk straight.

"Man, you look awful, are you alright?" Noticing how I walked and sounded.

"Uh, yeah I guess morning sickness. Anyways are we gonna move soon? Too dangerous staying in one place." Saying not telling him about the dream.

"Soon. When everyone is awake. I guess it's about Six in the morning." Starting to head back to camp.

After reaching to our camp, everyone was still asleep. I decided to go to sleep again as well. After all the energy I took puking my guts out. About three hours later I was woken up by Snivy. He simply said.

"Time to go. I thought letting you sleep was the best choice. We got your stuff ready. Do any last needed things and let's hit the road."

After cleaning up and eating quickly, we started heading on the road again. I thought about that dream again.

"Midnight Island." The same words echoed in my head. Till it was cut off by Snivy's voice.

"Okay! So, where do we go next for safety?" He exclaimed.

I was the first to speak.

"How 'bout Midnight Island?"

Many confused faces looked towards me. Embarrassment washed over me. I was use to being looked at by many eyes before. But this was awkward.

"Uh, what's that place?" Snivy questioned.

"Let me look on my map." As I pulled my map out.

Looking around the map I noticed a lonely island. Tapping on the location area, the info for the location popped up. It surely said Midnight Island. Reading the description it said.

"Midnight Island, mid size, dangerous sightings." And so on, so on. Just random info. After showing the group everyone slowly shook their heads yes. It was settled, we started heading to the island. Days later we finally reached the coast. Looking over the icy ocean, we all saw a lone island. The icy ocean looked pretty harden. Walking on it looked safe if we didn't walk all together. I went first. The ice doesn't look close to breaking. We all started heading over the ice. Everyone got over safety without incident. Walking on the frozen sandy beach, it was already getting dark, again. Setting up camp again we slept through the entire night. We all woke up with no noise. I was surprised nothing happened, for the first night since we got here. The morning shined throughout the island. We all woke up and packed our items. I hadn't had a dream of what to do next. So we just planned to look around the island and see anything interesting. Exploring the jungle of an island, I found a giant door. It looked like a giant temple door made thousands of years ago.

"Great. A locked door." I thought out loud.

"I wonder how to unlock it. I'm wondering what's behind it."

Returning to the meetup point, I noticed Snivy and Houndour was missing.

"Huh? Where's Houndour and that other one?" I said.

"Not sure. Hopefully they'll be back soon." Espeon said.

I didn't mention the door yet. I wanted to find the other two first. When it was started getting dusk again, they were still not back. I told everyone, we should find them before it gets to dark. I barely knew Snivy but he earned my trust. I don't think he would just leave, Tepig was with us anyways. So I think they just got lost. I was searching alone when everyone else was in a team. Houndour and Snivy was a team. Hopefully they're okay, it was getting dark and knowing what's in this world. We need to find them. We split up as teams, I went with Braixen. I would of picked Shinx, but I was still shocked about that dream, if it was a dream. Shinx was surprised too see I didn't pick him. Not talking to him I quickly left with my team member. Trying to search the east side with my partner, I felt strange. A tingle feeling. The feeling when someone is watching me. I stopped both of us, telling if she felt it also. Braixen replied yes. Starting to feel unsecured, I started heading to a more opened area. Entering an opened area I found, we found a strange shelter. Walking up to it, the door was locked. Kicking it down with massive force it fell. Entering it we found a chest. For some reason it was unlocked. Opening it I found a handgun and twelve bullets.

"Whoa! A gun?" I said almost screaming.

"Uh, be careful with that. We never handled guns before." Braixen said.

Searching the rest of the chest there was a, snow fury rife. Now the Snow Fury Rife, it was made back in the 1890's And now it's the 1999. Continuing in the chest there was body armor as well. Four pieces of chest armor. I never hold anything like this. Searching the entire chest, we headed back to the meet point. And now it's going to be easier. Hopefully...


	7. Chapter 7: Island Of Mysteries

Entering our small camp we were the only ones at the moment. Dropping our bags onto the icy sandy beach, I started inspecting the item's we found in the chest

"9mm Handgun, twelve bullets, snow rife, no bullets for it, and body armor." Saying in my mind. Braixen walked away leaving me alone to look over the gear. Inspecting the handgun it was in perfect condition. I loaded the clip and reloaded it. I looked in my bag and grabbed some leather and tape. Making a makeshift holster I put the gun inside it. Cleaning up everything I started to walk around to check the area out. Looking around it seemed the island was deserted, but it was a big island anything can happen. I walked up to Braixen and said.

"I wonder where everyone went. Wasn't someone guarding our place?"

"Yes I think Umbreon or Espeon was watching over things." She replied.

"Uh, where are they then?" I said.

"No idea. Maybe they went looking around."

"Hopefully they get back soon. Umbreon's still hurt."

Walking around the beach I still hadn't seen anything. I told Braixen to stay put when I looked deeper into the island. Walking deeper and deeper in the jungle like island, I started to walk up a steep hill. Climbing to the top I got a good view of half of the island. Looking around I saw a big building of something. Looking for a safe path up to the building, I saw a group of those monsters. Seems like we're not alone. Marking my pathway I made my way down the hill. When I got down I made my way to the building. Reaching the building I walked into it. Searching around for no reason just to try and find some extra foods and water. It was empty besides some scrapes. I was mostly done with this place. As I started walking to the front I heard doors opening down the hall. Gripping the Handgun I started slowly walking down the halls of the abandon building. The sounds were getting louder, I pulled the gun out. Opening door by door nothing was in them. After searching the entire building there was nothing. Wondering what the noise was I swiftly made it outside. After going outside I noticed it was getting dark. I started heading back to the beach. Reaching the beach again I saw Braixen and Espeon sitting there.

"Hey, Espeon." Sprinting to them.

"Oh he's back." Braixen said.

Reaching them we talked for a bit.

"Espeon when did you get back?" I said.

"I came back about an hour ago. I hadn't seem anyone so far." She replied.

"Wait weren't you grouped with someone?" I questioned.

"Yes. But we got separated. I came back here after searching." She said.

After talking a bit more I said.

"Well I'm going to search for everyone. You two stay here."

They nodded as I walked into the island once again. Walking through the dense green forest I set fourth to search for the others. After walking back the building I heard growls when I opened the door I saw Houndour and Snivy looking around. They turned and they said "About time we found someone." I told them we needed to head back right now. I heard running behind me, looking around I saw a black figure that looked like an Furfrou.

"Wha- Wait, a Furfrou?" I said.

"Furfrou? Does that mean…?" Snivy said.

"Maybe it's a different one! Ours couldn't had died." Houndour said.

"Whatever it is, it's heading towards us!" I yelled.

I tried pulling the handgun out but before I did the Furfrou dashed and knocked me to the ground. I punched him off me for a quick second but again he bashed me into the ground at lightning speed. Snivy and Houndour was standing there frozen in place. I tried pushing off the Furfrou but his strength was intense. It tried biting me and attempting to rip me to shreds. Even with his strength I still manged to keep him away. I tried reaching for the gun I dropped but it was out of reach. I used all my power to kick him off after I knocked him off I quickly got to my feet. I picked up the gun, I aimed and fired twice in the head. The Furfrou dropped to the floor unresponsive. After confirming it was dead I quickly grabbed the other two and ran back to the beach...


	8. Chapter 8: Island Survival 1

Walking up to the beach everyone was sitting around.

"Hm, seems like everyone got here pretty quickly huh?" I said.

"Weren't you gone for like two minutes?" Houndour said.

"Yeah, I guess everyone was close by." Replying back.

Everyone saw us as we walked up to them. Everyone seems normal. I had a couple bite marks around my stomach when I was attacked. Espeon saw it first.

"Riolu what happened to you?" In a concerned voice.

"It's nothing, I ran into some trouble but it's okay." I said back.

"Oh. Hopefully your okay then." She said.

That Furfrou had a powerful bite, I didn't noticed it till later.

"How did you all get here so soon?" Saying.

"We all grouped up and walked back." Umbreon said.

Now it was strange because everyone walked off in different directions. It was nice to be all together again. We all sat down and started a fire. After a bit everyone fell asleep due to it being really late. I couldn't sleep at all, the pain was too much. I was sitting next to Shinx and Houndour. I got up and moved across the way to avoid waking them up with my pained sharp breathing and noises.

"That Furfrou messed me up badly." I said my head.

The harden beach was so cold, it was hard to get conformable. My stomach was throbbing from pain. Finally after a couple more minutes of non-stop pain I got up and tried to walk it off. Walking to the icy ocean, I pulled my small knife out of my bag and started pounding the ice. I cracked the ice pretty bad and with one last bash to the ice it broke.

"A decent size ice hole…" I said to myself.

I then pulled my water bottle out and filled it. Trying to get as much water as I can, I capped the bottle. Shaking it up to break any unwanted ice I opened it back up to put a pill to ease burns in the water. Shaking it once again I opened it and carefully poured little amounts of icy water onto the bite. The second the water hit the bite I urged the need to scream my head off. The feeling was mixed with pain, fire and cold. After finishing, the burning went away and replaced with coldness. It felt a lot better. After that I slowly crept around the others trying not to wake anyone. I passed around without disturbing anyone. Once I got pass everyone I started walking around just to ease the pain a bit more. It started snowing a bit.

"Great. Now it's going to get a lot more cold. Just what I needed."

It only were flakes, but after a minute it was snowing hard.

It was getting colder and colder. I started walking back after stopping at a pond to go to the bathroom.

"It's freezing."

I reached our camp once again. Sneaking back into my tent to go to sleep. I woke up hours later. My other friends weren't next to me. Unzipping my tent to step outside I saw everyone up and sitting next to another fire. Looking around fluffy soft snow coated the ground. Seemed to snow almost all night. I decided to join all the others.

"Finally your awake." Snivy said.

"What?" I replied.

"You've been out for hours. It's just about Three Thirty." He said.

"What? Really? Wow I must've been really tried then."

"Well your probably hungry." Braixen said passing some food.

After eating I got up and went a little exploring. This island was massive, and we only seen little parts of it. It may even hold some cool locations. I also wanted to do some rock climbing when we are here. This place was very rocky and towered with giant rocks. I wanted to at lease have some fun here. I remember when I was little my parents took me places like in-door rock climbing. It was always fun, and now I wanted to do some extreme rock climbing. Adventuring towards the grassy area I walked backed to the place I was last night. It was really cloudy.

"Might snow again… Urg…" Saying annoyed.

Snow in Yuka was nice and all, but is very cold. Once I arrived at the small pond from last night, I sat down to watch the gentle snow that started falling once again. I started thinking what our next plan was. After more thinking I heard crunching snow behind me. I quickly turned my head behind me to see a shadow figure slowly inching towards me. Quickly getting to my feet and reached down to my side.

"What?!" I said.

"No, no, no! I forgot to grab my weapon!" I yelled.

I turned around and sprinted the opposite way of our camp. Running through the forest I can hear the footsteps behind me. I've ran what felt like forever till I got to a strange location. The place had been abandoned for a while now. It was falling apart all over. Quickly looking there was a hole in the wall. I ran sliding right inside. Once inside I quickly ran all over the place trying to find a place to hide. After looking around I found a small hatch in the ground. It was locked looking around I found a heavy pipe. Picking it up I forced it down onto the hatch. The lock busted open and I quickly opened it and ducked in. Listening for any sound I heard a door getting knocked down. I tried keeping my breathing silent. I heard footsteps, big heavy footsteps. I tried peeking out but didn't want to risk it. I just kept quiet and kept my head down. Starting to hear sounds right next to the hatch I was in, I started to hold my breath. It felt so long. Holding my breath for that long made my feel faint. After a couple more seconds the footsteps walked outside and into the forested area. After I knew the thing was far enough I took in a sharp amount of air as my lightheaded state returned to normal. After feeling safe enough I slowly opened the hatch and looked out. All I saw was big footprints in the snow. Looked like dragon steps. I didn't want to stay to find out. I quickly ran not tripping over anything. I made it back to camp where everyone was just sitting around. I ran like crazy as they got up and had questionable looks on their faces.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Shinx said.

I was completely out of breath as I tried to tell them what happened. After settling down and regain some breath I told them the thing that chased me.

"Yes, I hid once the thing was gone I ran all the way back here."

"Your so stupid, you really need someone to go with you as well. You can get extremely hurt out there and no one will be there to help you." Braixen said.

After talking about more things, we decided to pack up and explore as a group. When we started exploring into the deep jungle of an island, I was worried about that thing. As we continued to explore I wanted to climb a tall rock to see around for any safe areas. I told everyone I was going to climb and see if I can see something. I started climbing the giant rock. Slowly climbing up I got on top of it. I looked everywhere. All I could see were trees and frozen lakes. Once looking around once more I noticed shadows. They looked like an Pikachu, Litten and something that terrify me. It was a giant shadow Xerneas.

"Even an Xerneas fell to these?" Thinking to myself.

"Hey! You found anything?" Called Houndour from below.

"Shh!" I quickly replied.

Everyone understood instantly that there was something up. I carefully looked at the three. Wonder why a legendary was here. All I knew was it won't be good if we're spotted by it. After scanning over a little more I dropped to the ground.

"Well… There's something interesting I saw." I said slowly.

"What did you see?" Shinx said.

"Uh, well. I saw an Xerneas. And it seems to be one of those shadows." I said.

"Hold up. A Xerneas?!" Snivy said.

"Yeah. I never seen one visit Yuka before." Replying.

"Well, that isn't good. I can't think what would happen if we encounter it." Shinx replied.

We agree to leave the island. Walking back to the beach we started walking across the icy ocean. After half way through we heard cracking. We all stopped in our tracks, I looked down to see the cracked ice below. I started to say.

"Don't move..."

"Slowly walk back..."

We all started to slowly walk backwards without turning around. Once we got back to the beach we looked back and saw all the ice was broken. Even one step would come crashing down into the icy waters.

"Great, just great… We're stuck here." Poochyena said.

"Wow. So your not a mute." Umbreon joke said.

"Shut… Up…" He replied back.

"Cut it. We need to find a way off this. I think the ice is weakening." I said.

"Well we're stuck here with a shadow Xerneas. I don't want to think of what would happen if it catches us." Braixen said.

"He won't. Let's all just stay close together." I said.

We just decided to try and explore to find any supplies. When trying to also avoid these monsters. Walking around together we found a small house.

"Let's search there. Maybe there's supplies there." I told the group.

"Good idea. We're running out of food." Houndour said.

Opening the destroyed door that fell off almost, we proceeded to walk in. Once we're in, we started walking around the small house. After searching most of it we only found a couple of items. When we were done searching we left. Leaving we heard growling.

"Shh, stay quiet." I whispered.

We all started looking around slowly trying to see where the growling was coming from.

"Sneak away we're already an open target here." I said.

After sneaking away the growls faded away. We hid behind some trees and looked over, we saw nothing. The growls weren't audible. I looked over and saw next to the cabin house were a single Charmander. It wasn't a shadow.

"Hey, that isn't a shadow." I whispered to everyone.

Everyone said they saw it too.

"Should we help him?" Braixen said.

"Let's just watch for now. It's too risky. Unless something happens we shouldn't show ourselves." I said.

Watching from behind trees the Charmander slowly made it's way to the place we were just at. He noticed our destruction while searching the house. The Charmander had a metal baseball bat hooked on his back. He was also wearing some kind of body armor.

"He should be useful..." Braixen said,

"What really? That Charmander seems out of place." I said.

"He does have experience I believe." Said Shinx.

"Urg, fine." I said walking out of cover.

"Hey, you there!" I yelled out.

The Charmander freaked out and threw his baseball bat at me. The baseball bat missed me by inches.

"Hey whoa. Don't attack!" Everyone else walked out.

"What are you all doing here?!" The Charmander questioned.

"We're just surviving. Where did you come from?" I asked.

"I came from Halso. But came to Yuka a year ago." He said.

"What are you doing in this strange universe anyways?" I said.

"Long story… I followed a glowing orb. Woke up here full of shadows just wanted to kill..." He said.

"Hm. Same as us." I said.

After more talking we accepted Charmander into the group. Once we added him to our group, we started heading around to find more stuff. We ran around the island just looking for gear and items to use to survive. We manged to sneak pass many shadows without detection. Trying to use my map to see any landmarks on this island. It's pretty large. I seen a tower not far from where we were. We went there next. After walking a bit we saw the tower in the distant. It was on a massive mountain, we all started climbing the steep mountain to the tower. When we made it to the top the building with the radio tower stood in front of us.

"Well, here we are." I said.

"That climb almost killed me..." Shinx complained.

"You seriously need to workout more..." Braixen added.

"Whatever" Shinx scoff.

Walking up to the door it was locked.

"Of course it is..." I said.

"Anyone got a lock pick?" I said to everyone.

Everyone said no.

"Guess it's force." As I kicked the door with one powerful kick. The kick was enough to send the door falling over.

"Dude. You have one heck of a leg." Shinx said.

"Months of practice and stuff." I said.

As we walked over the broken floor to search around I noticed something right away.

"Hey look here, extra bullets." I said. Picking up four extra bullets for my weapon.

After that we started searching top to bottom in this place. Got some food, water and junk. The place looked good enough to sleep in. With the freezing weathers outside it's probably a good idea to stay a night. Getting dark anyways.

"Let's stay here tonight. Sounds good?" I told everyone.

"I think it's a perfect idea. Better then sleeping in tents in this weather…" Houndour said.

"True." Shinx said.

We set up our sleeping bags for the night. When we set up, we went outside and looked around from our high point. We were pretty opened but hopefully nothing disturbing us. Night has fallen over the lands. It got dark pretty quickly. We decided just to have a fire outside before sleep. After an hour half of us got sleepy and went to sleep. It was only three and I. Another hour everyone was asleep. And again I was awake. I was just watching out for anything. Nothing happened for about thirty minutes, I went to sleep afterwards. Waking up the next morning the sun was shining bright. Getting up and leaving the building, I saw everyone outside just hanging out.

"Catch!" Braixen yelled.

She thrown something at me I caught it and saw it was a fire sapphire or something.

"Whoa this is cool. Where did you find this?" I asked.

"I don't know, I was digging around and found it. Thought you may like it." She said.

"Wow. Thanks I love things like these." I replied.

"No problem..." She said.

The fire sapphire was glowing a beautiful orange color. I put it in my backpack and started looking to the icy landscape. At lease it was warming up.

"Well should we get going?" I said.

"I'm ready." Braixen said.

Everyone got ready and we went back down. As we were sliding down someone slipped and rolled down knocking me and another two down. Hitting the bottom I looked up and was in pain.

"Are you serious?" I said.

"Okay that hurt..." Braixen said next to me.

"Yep..." Houndour as well.

"I lost my footing sorry… I think I hurt something..." Shinx said.

"So Shinx knocked as down? I think my leg's injured." I said.

"Hey you guys okay?" A voice came from above.

"Yes, we're okay..." I said.

We got up and waited for the others to make it down. Once all of us were down I looked up my map to see the next location. Once it got up there was a pretty big place near by.

"This place has a lot of places for an island." I said.

Our next location was that building then. Once getting there about an hour later the place was already destroyed and looted.

"Ah, this place." The Charmander said.

"What you've been here?" I replied.

"Yeah, this was the last place till I went to your area. Had nothing already." He said.

I looked at my map again to see what's next. I won't waste time searching a looted place already. Seems like many, many others are here. Looking again I saw a docking area. It looked pretty big and had a lot of brush to hide in. We started walking to that then. It was annoying getting there, but we finally made it. It looked abandoned and untouched. It was a bit annoying to get in though. It took about half an hour to break through. Once in the place had tons of supplies.

"Whoa, look at all this stuff!" Shinx said.

"I think we found our spot for tonight." I said.

"Alright check everywhere." I told everyone

Minutes later I was called by Shinx.

"Riolu look at this you may like this."

I walked over to him and saw boxes of food, water, medical supplies and much more.

"Whoa! This can last for months!" I said in joy.

"Keep everything in here because it had secured walls that can't be broken through." I said.

We kept everything where it was. It was pretty amazing. Food this much can last a long time with our group. We had to conserve it even know there were stacks. I locked the door with a padlock I found and kept it locked. When that was over with the rest regrouped with building supplies and tools.

"We hit the jackpot. Why didn't anyone loot this? I bet it'd be looted already." Braixen said.

"Maybe they couldn't bust down the door?" I suggested.

There were many kinds of supplies we could use. It even contained a pickaxe. I looked around and saw a table most preferred to craft.

"This place was stocked for the Apocalypse or something wow." I said.

We piled each supplies together. Medic with medic, supplies with supplies. So on so on, once we were done with that it was getting dark. We set up our beds once again and went to sleep as I stood awake watching out for dangers...


	9. Chapter 9: Island Survival 2

Looking outside the broken windows, there was nothing In sight. It was just a plain old night. After being sent here it's been restless. We could stay here and try to defend, or we could find someplace far, far away from all this. It was pass midnight when I heard rattle sounds outside. I was dazing off till it woke me up. I looked outside and saw a figure dressed all in black. I perked up after seeing it. I then got up and went to the front doors. They were locked luckily, when I peaked outside the figure was gone. Looking through all visible windows, it was gone. I thought I was seeing things. Once checking the last areas I stayed up a little longer till I fell asleep. Next morning everyone was still sleeping till we heard a loud thud coming from the door. We all were jerked awake and launched up. We all turned towards the doors and listen carefully. I carefully crawled to an open window. Looking out I saw three figures using crowbars and pickaxes trying to open the doors. Worrying they'll get in I aimed and shot next to them. They all jumped and sprinted away instantly. It was already bad enough, it'll just worst if we get robbed.

"What did you just shoot at?" Shinx said.

"Three things not sure shadows tried breaking in." I replied.

I quickly opened the doors and walked outside. Stepping outside, weapon out. Looking around trying to see anyone who may be hiding. Seconds later I heard a loud and got hit over the head with something metal. I dropped unconscious.

-Shinx-

"He has been out there for a while." Braixen said.

"I know. Should we look?" I said back.

"We should give a quick look I guess." Braixen replied.

Getting up I went outside and noticed nothing. I tried looking everywhere for Riolu but he wasn't seen anywhere.

"Huh? We'd he go?" I thought.

Continuing to look I didn't find anything. No trace at all. Didn't even see any footprints in the snow, it was pretty strange.

"I guess he went looking deeper. Hopefully he can handle himself." I thought while re-entering the building.

-Riolu-

Waking up I couldn't see anything, I was blindfolded and my hands were bounded to my back. I started trying to use my shoulders to lift the blindfold but I couldn't reach it. Next thing I heard was door slamming.

"Was the group playing a prank? Because if so they gave me a head concussion." I thought in my head.

I lifted myself up so I was sitting.

"Okay. Uh, find something while blindfolded. Shouldn't be that hard."

Trying to find something to cut these binds I finally found a broken piece of something sharp. Cutting off the rope I pulled the blindfold off. I was in a dark room with only one thing. A door. The walling and floor was made of strong stuff. Looked like iron. I went through the door.

-Shinx-

"It's been like an hour since he left." Houndour suddenly said.

"I know, I know. I'm starting to get worried." I said.

"We should start looking. What if he needs us?" Braixen said.

"I'm down." Charmander said.

"So I'm I." Snivy also said.

Everyone started to agree to search.

"Well, if everyone wants to look let's do it. Some people need to stay behind though to keep an eye on this stock pile." I said.

"I'll stay with Houndour" Said Poochyena.

"What? Why me?" Houndour said.

"Because your hurt. Umbreon you stay here also, for some reason your still healing also." He continued.

"Fine." Said both of them.

"So the ones coming are, Charmander, Snivy, Braixen, I think Tepig, Espeon, Zorua, and I." Saying.

"I'll stay here." Said Zorua and Tepig.

"Okay… Now it's only five of us. Well let's get ready to go." I said.

-Riolu-

"This place is massive!" I thought in my head, as I walk down many hallways and rooms.

"Where even I'm I? Whatever it is it sucks."

I tried to look for any thing to use as a weapon. My weapon and gear were taken. Opening a door I saw some figures inside. I quickly peaked in the crack, it were those things in complete black.

"Shadows?" I said.

"Maybe it's best to leave them alone and escape this place quick."

I tried backing up but I slipped on something and made a loud crashing noise when I hit the ground. I landed on my back and it hurt. A lot. After falling I heard the noises stop next door. I quickly got up and sprinted down the long hallway.

"You! Stop!" I heard down the hallway.

That made me run faster. I quickly reached the end of the hall and turned right. Ducking down next to some crates. I heard them run pass, after a couple minutes I got up and ran left.

-Shinx-

"Okay! Let's get going." I said.

Everyone got ready and we venture forward to find Riolu. We all had makeshift bars from the supplies. Leaving the safety of our new base, we faced the freezing temperatures of Yuka.

-Umbreon-

"What do you want to do?" I asked.

"Don't know. Kinda wanna to go with the others." Said Tepig.

"Too late for that." I replied.

The room fell silence. It was kind of awkward.

"Hey I got an idea!" Tepig said.

"Oh? What is that?" I said.

"We should do something outside." He said.

"I'm already board out of my mind… I guess it's worth a shot." I said.

We got some stuff and went outside to do something that Tepig wanted to do.

-Riolu-

"Gotta run! Gotta run! Faster!" I yelled in my mind.

Running and avoiding these things, I found a room called "Loot" I quickly ducked inside and looked around. The room was completely filled to the top with everything you needed. I found a box with the title "Weapons" I quickly looked in a found a cool looking Handgun and Sword. The Handgun had frost camo on it. And the Sword had grass camo. I quickly grabbed them and ran. Once exiting I heard a gunshot and hitting the wall next to me. I looked back and saw they were shooting me. I ran again trying to find a good camping spot. Once I found a place with boxes I hid behind them.

"Look everywhere! If you find him kill him. We already did what we needed." One said,

"Did what they needed?" I thought,

"What did they do to me?"

I got mad and pulled the gun out. I aimed and shot one through the head. He dropped without delay. Brains and blood everywhere. I quickly ran before they got a shot on me.

"What the?! Get him!" Shooting while calling out.

"I'm gonna get lost and killed in here! Where's the damn exit!" I screamed.

I started running out of stamina as I started slowing down. I thought quickly and entered a room. As I hid in the darken room, I heard running pass the room. It was scary. I stood in there and waited.

-Shinx-

We called out for Riolu for hours. Trying to look everywhere.

"We're never going to find him on this massive island..." Braixen said.

"He knows not to explore miles away. Just keep looking." I said.

We tried even looking where he mostly goes. But nothing. We all got worried thinking something may have happened to him.

"What if that legendary got him?" Espeon said.

"Don't even think about. Even if he was, I'm pretty sure he'll escape." I said.

We continued to search the island for any clues while the sun was still high.

-Umbreon-

"Not only I'm board, I need to freeze now?" I said.

"Oh, stop complaining." Tepig said.

We were out in the cold. Doing nothing. I wasn't about to get sick, so I went back in to warm up.

"I wonder where the others are… I'm so board." I said.

A Couple of minutes later trying to warm up I was interrupted by Tepig.

"Why are you in here? Come on! We're going to do something fun." He said.

"Fun? Things I do for fun is exploring and battling." I said.

"Well your complaining your board. Join and see what we're doing." He said.

"Well if your fun is playing in the snow, I'll stay in here. How old are you anyways if you play in snow?" I questioned

"Uh, anyways we'll be outside..." He said.

He left and I could finally have some peace. Only if I was able to go with them.

-Riolu-

"Get away!" I yelled as they still chased me.

"I knew I shouldn't of left that room for a little longer." Regretting my choice.

I continued running still wonder why this was so huge. It took me forever to reach a metal door saying exit.

"Freaking finally!" I yelled.

I opened and slammed it behind me. Those things wouldn't let up. Maybe they were normal and not shadows. Hopefully the door slammed hard enough where it got damaged and stuck. For safety I picked up a nearby pipe and jammed it into the door lock. I ran up the stairs leading to the outside. It felt so good feeling the shining sun on me. I couldn't shake the feeling of ending a possible normal life. But it was for safety I thought to myself.

"Was I in a bunker?" I thought.

I noticed where I was, it wasn't that far from the factory. I walked the way I believe was the right way.

-Shinx-

Walking through the snowy landscape, we were all freezing trying to still search.

"We need to start a fire..." Snivy said.

"Yeah your right. Let's stop and gather some sticks." I said.

We gathered some sticks and logs to start a simple fire. It was still sunny out. Cleaning out a place to start the fire, we heard snow crunching. We stopped and looked into the forest where the noise was coming from. I grabbed the bar.

"He- Hello?" I called out.

-Riolu-

Walking around the forest, the weather changing pretty quickly. I needed to find a place warm before it started snowing once again.

"This sucks. I just want to go back to the normal world, and watch some TV." I said.

I started looking for warmth. I heard branches snapping and stuff. I carefully sneaked up. I made snow crunch beneath me.

"He- Hello?" I heard.

"That sounds a lot like Shinx." I thought to me.

I looked around and saw it was Shinx and some others. I stayed hidden to make sure it was them. After a couple minutes they seemed like the ones I knew.

"Shinx?" I said.

Shinx quickly turned and saw me.

"Where have you been?" He asked.

"Somewhere I don't want to say..." I said.

"Seems like we can return now." Shinx said.

We all started walking back. The sun was setting once we arrived back. When we arrived at the building everyone was outside. Everyone was looking.

"Finally you've been gone all day." Umbreon said.

We walked inside to get warm. Once inside we talked about what happened to me. What what happened in there.

"Wait, so you killed someone? Someone normal?" Tepig said.

"I had no choice they wanted to kill me." I said.

Talking a bit more, it got dark. We all went to sleep. The next morning I woke up fully warmed up. It was pretty warm out also. Once I exited the building I found strange looking footprints in the fresh snow. It was pretty strange.

"Hey was anyone out?" I asked.

Everyone said no.

"Well I found footsteps on the side of the building." I said.

Everyone came over and saw them as well. Everyone started to question each others. I looked up and saw the footprints going into the forest.

"That's strange." I said.

Everyone saw the prints leading into the forest. We decided to just stay put, as last time it didn't go well. We just stayed near the building the rest of the day. The day passed without incident. It was pretty relax just enjoyed the warmth before it turns cold again. Night once again arrived, everyone went to sleep. The morning arrived and everyone got up. We had our breakfast and went outside. Clouds moved in and started snowing shortly after. We found more footprints outside before the snow covered them.

"We should be careful. Something isn't right here." I said.

"Maybe those things I found?" I thought.

Night arrived and I stood up and kept a watch. About two in the morning I heard the sounds of walking. I stood up and looked outside. I saw two figures to dark to see. I grabbed my gun and sneaked next to the doors. Once I reached the doors, I looked outside the side window. I found the two figures trying to break through the door. I aimed and shot point blank. I heard a scream and they scattered away. I shot one in the arm. Everyone was shocked awake due to the gunshot. After I shot, I ran outside and saw blood on the snow. It was leading into the forest. I ran after them to end this. After reaching an opened area, I looked around hoping to pick up their trace again. Searching I heard crunching behind me. I quickly turned around and shot.

"Whoa! Don't Shoot!" Screamed Shinx.

Luckily my aim was awful while point blanking.

"You almost shot me!" He screamed.

"You should of said something! You never sneak up to someone with a weapon..." I said.

"I ran after you when you burst out the door." He said.

"So did you find them?" He asked.

"No… I didn't..." I said.

After searching a bit more we went back before anything happens. Once we got back everyone was up and searching around. They didn't come back while I was gone. Something was watching us. I could feel it.

"Hey, I have an uneasy feeling." Braixen said.

"I do too. We have to stay on guard." I said.

"Wait. Where's Snivy and that Charmander?" Houndour said.

We looked around and noticed the two were gone. I didn't see them leave.

"Your right. Where are they?" I said.

"Uh, I didn't see them leave or anything." Umbreon said.

"Hopefully they're okay." I said.

At first I thought they went outside to do something. I forgot about it a little later. I and two others stayed up when I rest slept. It was only three hours later till the two came back. I unlocked the door and let them in.

"Where have you two been?" I said.

"Uh… Somewhere. Mostly just walk n' talk." Snivy said.

"Huh huh. Well anyways get to sleep." I said.

They then went to sleep, as I watched for those things again. Next time I won't miss their heads. Another hour nothing happened. I decided to get some sleep before everyone got up. Hours later I woke up to the sound of talking. I looked up from my sleeping position to see those things were back again. I was angry by then I got up and kicked the door knocking two figures back. They both landed on their backs and I pointed and yelled.

"Stay away from us! I will kill you next time!"

They both stayed down, not talking at all. I kept aiming at them. My screaming woke up some of the group. They got up and saw I was standing there pointing at something. They walked up to see the two figures completely dressed in black.

"You caught them?" Shinx said.

"Yes. And now if they don't talk I'll kill them." I said.

"Do not, we can get info out of them." Shinx tried convincing me.

"Fine. But if they don't talk, I'll kill them." I said.

We dragged the two into the building and tied them up. We pulled the masks off them. It was surprisingly an Pancham and Meowth.

"Strange pair." I thought to myself.

They just looked down avoiding any conversation. I was getting annoyed.

"Why are you two here?" Shinx asked.

The two didn't make any contact. They weren't talking one bit. I looked at the Pancham arm, it had a bullet hole. So it was them I shot. I got really annoyed of them not talking, so I pointed the weapon at them.

"We asked you a question. Answer!" I said.

I Meowth mumbled something to himself.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

The Meowth said clearer.

"You killed our friend." He said.

"Wait so you two are the ones in that bunker?" I said.

"Huh? What bunker?" Shinx said.

"Yes, we were survivors. We knocked you out because you had a firearm." Meowth said.

"So you locked me in some kind of dungeon?" I asked.

"We locked you up till we knew you were friendly. I didn't want to take any chances." He told me.

"We we're going to be friendly till you took that shot. So we pulled our guns and fired after you." Pancham said.

We kept asking questions and everything for a couple hours. Once we finally found out they meant no harm we untied them. We gave them some food and water. It was starting to get light out.

"We've been up all night..." I said yawning.

"Let's all get some sleep." Shinx said.

"What about those two? I still don't trust them. Someone should stay up a bit longer so they can't kill us." Poochyena said.

Sleeping felt so amazing right now, being up all night. Shinx stood up, he had the most energy. Many hours later we woke up. Meowth and Pancham was already awake. Once again not really talking. I now think they're still shocked about me killing their friend. The two looked at me and Meowth said.

"I can't believe our friend is gone…" Looking into my eyes.

He then walked outside with the rest. It was bothering me. I killed an incident whatever. I wasn't sure who it was. I felt bad, if only they told me. Now a life was lost because of me. I walked outside to enjoy some sun. When I walked out I noticed the two new ones were just sitting alone. I walked up to Shinx.

"Well. Those two are kind messed up right now." I said.

"Yeah, hopefully they're okay." Shinx said back.

I walked away and walked up to them. They were just talking to each others. They heard me walk up and looked at me.

"We were just survivors." Meowth said.

"It'll be okay. He doesn't need to suffer anymore of this torture." Said Pancham.

"Possible." Meowth replies.

I talked a tiny bit, then walked away. The day passed quickly, when it became dark we went inside. It's strange having those two with us. Something doesn't feel right. Hopefully it's nothing. Next morning I woke up and saw everyone was gone. I walked outside and only saw Umbreon and Houndour. I walked up to them.

"Where is everyone?" I questioned.

"Oh they all went out for a walk I guess." He replied.

"And you two stayed behind?"

"Yeah, I wanted to just sit here. Peaceful I guess."

"Know when they'll be back?" I asked.

"Not sure. They left about an hour ago."

With everyone gone I can finally relax. I went back into the building and started doing my own stuff.

-Shinx-

"We should head back." I said.

"Aw, it's really nice out though." Braixen said.

"Too bad Riolu didn't wake up in time." Poochyena said.

Walking back to the building, we have fun messing around on the way back. Sometimes I forget that this universe could kill you instantly. I hope we can make it out without losing one of us. It wasn't easy to find peace in this place. But with friends it's easier. We started closing in on the building.

-Riolu-

I finished working on my gun and stuff. I improved it to fire faster and increased the clip of it.

"It's nice being alone. Can get so much done." I said.

I worked on a melee weapon for defense to save ammo. After I completed my work the others came back.

"Your back." I said.

"Yeah, we just went for a walk." Shinx said.

We all walked into the building and waited till the next move...


	10. Chapter 10: Island Of Horror

Night arrived, and now things start going down. We were planning on exploring during night.

"Well, night exploration?" Shinx said.

"Yes, were going to go to their bunker. It was loaded." I said.

"All of us are going. Try and gather as much as we can in one go." Continuing.

Once we settled a plan we rested and got ready. Night arrived and we started heading towards the bunker. On our way we kept hearing noises in the distance. Pancham and Meowth was silent the entire way. Once we reached it the door was blown opened. Those two must've blown it open to leave. Once we entered the giant maze, it was hard to navigate.

"Follow me..." Meowth said under his breath.

We followed him to a room filled with weird looking foods and supplies. The food was nothing I heard of before. Probably made and shipped from Gaco. They made some crazy weird foods. We started searching the room for anything useful. Once done he took us down another area filled with ammo.

"How did you get all this stuff?" I questioned.

"It was here when we arrived. We found the last owners about fourteen of them. All dead." He said.

"Fourteen? That's insane. Any cause of death?" I said.

"All we could make out was they were ripped apart. I guess those shadows..." He said.

We continued to make our way down the halls. It was massive, looked like it could hold about a thousand capacity. We walked around getting everything we could. After a bit we entered a strange room, it had boxes full of strange items. We took a quick look and left. Something felt eerie about that room. It took about four hours before we went back. Walking back to the door, we all heard a loud thud coming somewhere in the bunker.

"Shh." Meowth said.

We all looked around the corner and saw an Pikachu with a Winchester.

"Whoa. Don't wanna mess with that." I whispered.

"Heh, yeah." Snivy said.

We waited and after a while the Pikachu decided to just leave. Didn't even search around. Maybe he knew something was off. We left without anything happening and went back to our base. It took sometime to get back due to encounters with shadows. Once we were back we unpacked all our stuff. We got tons of goodies. It was still nighttime so we went to sleep.

"Just go..."

"It's coming..."

"You must go..."

"Huh? Wha- Who's there?" I asked.

"Hello? Anyone?" I continued.

Moments later I woke up coughing intensely. After regaining breath, I got up and walked outside to get some air. I was really thirsty as well. I just waited a bit before going back to sleep. It took some time but I drifted into sleep. Morning came and went before I woke up. Everyone was sorting the loot out. I looked around and saw Snivy and Charmander was once again gone. I walked up to Shinx who was sorting foods.

"Snivy and Charmander is gone again?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm not sure where they went." He replied.

"Strange. I wonder where they went." I said.

After that I helped sort out the gear. It took a while but finally got it done. Those two still were not here. I went to look for a bit. After telling the group they wanted to come, but I said I'll be fine. They gave up and let me go on my way. Walking through the forest, the sun finally melted all snow and it was warm out.

"Ah, at lease I'm not freezing." I thought.

I walked through the last known direction they went. Continuing down the dead road, I started thinking of heading back. I kept looking around for another hour, till I decided to take a break. After a little break, I got up and continued once again to look.

-Shinx-

"We should of went or followed behind." I said.

"Yeah, I know. But we need all the guards we can." Braixen said.

It's been about three hours since he left. I wasn't really worried. But hopefully they get back soon.

-Snivy-

"Place secured?" I said.

"Yes, seems like it. Hopefully no-one can get in." Charmander said.

"So ready?" I asked.

"Always." He replied.

-Riolu-

It's been almost all day without any clues. I just headed back. Once I got back I went to sleep. Next morning the two were still not there.

"We need everyone's help, and those two are off on an adventure of wonder..." I said annoyed.

Meowth and Pancham was inside unlike everyone else. It was strange but didn't think much of it. I left and continued my adventure to find stuff. Most likely those two. I journeyed through the forest.

-Snivy-

"All night? Thought it might only take like an hour." I said.

"Well you must make it prefect." Charmander said.

"I guess but still it's very tiring." I said.

We then locked up the house and headed back to the base.

-Shinx-

"Catch!" I yelled while throwing a pebble

"What are you doing?" Braixen questioned.

"We've been here without any fun. I wanna do something!" I said.

Braixen picked up something and toss it. The object hit me. I looked down, It was a red stone.

"Whoa… What's this..." I said in surprised.

-Riolu-

Adventuring deeper and deeper to try and find a place to scout.

"I wonder what happened to Xerneas, hadn't seem it for a couple days." I thought.

I found a nice looking flat rock to sit on. I climbed it and sat down. It was pretty nice, it had a massive range to see anything about five miles away. I kept looking for places those two may have went too. It took a little searching, but I found some kind of cabin. It looked like something I didn't search yet. I was interested in it. I got down and walked back to the base to tell the others. As I was walking I finally saw Snivy and Charmander walking to the same location.

"About time." I told them.

"Oh, uh. Hi." Charmander said.

"Stay cool." Snivy said under his breath.

"Uh, huh. Okay… Let's start walking back..." I said suspicious.

Once entering the base everyone was outside. Guess to enjoy the nice weather before it changes to a blizzard. As I was walking in I noticed Shinx holding something. I walked up to him and took the item.

"Hey! Give that back!" He screamed at me.

I ignored him and inspected it. The odd stone was red. It felt heavy, way to heavy for a stone. Once done I gave it back to Shinx who tried to push me. That stone felt different. There was something about it. I walked away, I entered the building and worked. Late that night I got up and left. I walked away without looking back.

"I'm leaving. For a while. Something isn't right." I said in my mind.

"That thing Shinx's had was going to cause trouble. I'm abandoning my friends. Not a smart choice. I just need to leave for a while. At lease a day or two." Continuing.

I walked into the wilderness trying to find what I was looking for. I walked to the cabin I saw earlier. It took a while to walk to, but I got there. It was still pitch black outside. I walked into the cabin. Looking around there wasn't much. Holding my spiked pipe I continued searching the entire house. The house was completely secured from anything dangerous. The only door that was locked was the basement.

"Strange." I thought.

I tried using my pipe to break it open. It had to be locked inside and outside. I was wondering what was in there. I didn't think much due to sleepiness. After setting up I fell asleep.

"Good choice..."

"Huh…? Who's there?" I said.

"They're all going to die. You did good leaving."

"Show yourself! Who's going to die?!" I screamed into the darkness.

Looking around the mist of blackness, I felt something touching my shoulder. I whipped around and saw a deformed entity looking straight back at me. I stood there in shock.

"Don't be afraid." The thing said.

"Wha- What are you?! I'm terrified!" I said in a shaky voice.

"Team Vortex." The thing simply said.

"Team what?" I started thinking back. Till it hit me.

"Their here too. Don't let them take you down. Their hunting you and your friends." It said.

Team Vortex was a team back in the real world. We've been through tons of battles and things. We were Team Star. Vortex was enemies with us. They're mad how we saved Yuka after they almost released demons upon Yuka. The Eight Stones.

"They also entered the way you did. They found out your here too."

"You need to leave this island asap."

"I would've been gone already. But the ice." I said.

"Survive a couple more days on this island. Don't let the shadows catch you."

"What happens if they do catch us?" I questioned.

"You seen it. They ripped your insides out. Now, get ready." The thing said, fading away.

I was covered in blackness, then I woke up. I got up and looked around.

"Team Vortex? Great." I said.

If what that thing said, they are here. Team Vortex wanted to get rid of us for a while now. And now they're here with us. As long as they keep their ways and leave us alone, they'll be okay. I got up the sun was shining through the windows. I left the house and started looking for stuff to upgrade it.

-Shinx-

"Urg, my head..." Getting up.

I looked around and saw everyone still asleep.

"What time is it?" I thought.

I got up and grabbed my stuff. I noticed we're missing someone.

"Riolu? Where did you go?" I searched and didn't see him anywhere.

"Maybe outside to train." I said walking out.

Walking outside, he wasn't anywhere to be found. I got worried. I thought he just went somewhere to train or something. I thought nothing else of it and woke up everyone else.

-Riolu-

I toss logs into a pile. After stacking enough, I pulled out the saw I took and made planks. After enough planks I grabbed some metal and forged nails. After that I started to board up the windows. The day passed quickly, I was exhausted by the end. After I was done I went to sleep right away.

-Shinx-

It was mid-day and Riolu wasn't back yet. I worried something may have happened. I shown my worry to everyone. Everyone knew Riolu wasn't back yet. We all decided to go searching before dark.

-Riolu-

I woke up, it was still sunny out. Probably only slept for an hour. Knowing Team Vortex was here unnerved me. If I know them correctly they're going to hunt us down. But I'm pretty sure they won't find us. Yuka is a massive region. I wondered how the others were doing. I'll return tomorrow. I stayed in the entire day. Night came and simply went to sleep.

-Shinx-

"It's been the entire day. And still no sight." I said.

"We'll find him." Braixen said.

-Snivy-

"Why are we following these guys?" I whispered to Charmander.

"No idea. They wanted us to come." He said back.

"We should ditch when we get the chance." I said.

"True. Let's go when we get the chance." He told me.

-Shinx-

"Huh? What's this?" I said.

"What did you find?" Houndour said.

I bent down and picked up something I seen before. It was Riolu's golden chain. He worn a gold chain around his wrist. We all did. I was wearing an ocean blue one. I showed the others.

"Isn't that Riolu's lucky chain?" Braixen said.

"Yeah, it is. I really hope nothing happened to him." I said.

"Let's search harder!" Umbreon said.

We continued to search the forest for Riolu.

-Riolu-

I woke up the next morning when I awoke from a strange knocking. I got up still dazed with sleep in my eyes. I walked up to the door and looked outside. I saw a Floatzel standing there.

"Floatzel? Were did he come from?" I thought.

I reached to unlock the door till I heard the knocking intense. I stopped and wondered, why did they want in. I grabbed the gun in case. I unlocked it as soon as the door made the unlock sound, the door was kicked open. I was forcefully knocked back, I looked up from the ground and saw the Floatzel, Prinplup and a Liepard. I looked at them. My eyes widen as I stared on their arms. They had the Team Vortex logo.

"Bu-" I was cut off.

"Where is everyone? Your alone…?" Prinplup said.

"Ho- How did you find me so fast?!" I said.

"Non of your concerned. If your alone this will be fun heh." Said Liepard.

I still had the gun in my hand. I quickly lifted it and shot. They all dodged it.

"Where did he get a gun?!" Floatzel said.

"Guess we'll do this the hard way." Liepard said.

Before I knew what was going on, I was swiftly hit by the lightning fast Liepard. I dropped the gun across the room. I quickly grabbed my pipe from the ground and swung. I felt it hit something and heard a crunch sound. It was pulled out of what I hit, I opened my eyes and saw blood all over the floor. I had hit the dashing Liepard right in the side. The Liepard quickly dashed to the other members as she looked down.

"Are you okay?!" Floatzel said.

"Yes. Just finish him." She said in an evil tone.

I got up as fast as I could. But it wasn't fast enough they saw me and the Prinplup kicked me hard in the stomach. I fell back down without hesitation coughing up blood.

"I shouldn't of left… It was so stupid..." I thought.

"Now I'm being attacked without help."

While thinking these, I heard a click. My ears perked up instantly.

"No, no, no!" I thought.

I looked back and saw the Floatzel holding up my pistol. My eyes widen as he pointed it at me.

"Do- Don't do this please!" I screamed.

I looked him in the eyes. Trying to force them not to do this. But it wasn't enough.

"Wait!" I yelled.

"Wait Ple-" I was cut off, as I saw the flash of the barrel and an intense pain. He shot me through the arm, chest, and leg. I dropped to the floor with a heavy thud, as my vision and hearing faded.

"Th- This… Is… It..." I thought as I slowly died on the floor.

The last thing I saw was the three standing over me. They looked for a couple more seconds then left without saying anything. Moments later I fell unconscious, facing my faith.

-Shinx-

"Whoa! Did you hear that?!" I said.

"A gunshot? Yeah." Braixen said.

-Snivy-

"Now's are chance." I whispered to Charmander.

"Let's dash outta here." He replied.

We ran into the forest without them knowing.

-Shinx-

"That gunshot can from someplace in front of us." I told everyone.

"Everyone let's go!" Umbreon said.

We all ran to the sound of the noise. We ran up to some kind of cabin. We tried and opening the door but something was keeping it locked. We tried knocking it down and everything, nothing was working.

"Let me try." Houndour said.

He tried headbutting the door but it wasn't working. Not finding another way, we tried looking for another entrance. After bit of searching we found a ground window leading to the basement. I smashed it open and crawled through. Once everyone got in, we explored the basement. Finding nothing we walked up the stairs. The door opened with a loud squeak. I walked deeper into the cabin. I walked around the corner and saw blood. I slowly walked over and saw Riolu laying there. He was shot three times. I flipped him over to see better. He was shot in the leg, arm and chest. Thankfully he had that body armor on. I was terrify at the sight. He seemed to still be breathing some how, even with how much blood he lost. I quickly ran downstairs into the basement and yelled through the window.

"I found Riolu! I need help!" Then I quickly ran up again.

I found a pipe stuck in the door. I quickly removed it. It looked like Riolu's spiked pipe. I let the others in and they saw him laying there.

"What happened?!" Braixen said.

"I'm not sure!" I yelled.

"Hold up, where's Snivy and Charmander?" Houndour said.

"Wasn't they with us?" Poochyena said.

"They were… Did they plan this or something?" Zorua said.

"I'm not sure, I'm not worried about that right now! Help me drag him!" I told everyone.

We picked him up and tried lifting him back to the building.

-Snivy-

"Finally… About time." I said annoyed.

"Yeah, I didn't care much about what they're doing." Charmander said.

"Hopefully that found what they're looking for." I replied.

"Yeah, now help me with this." He said to me.

-Shinx-

We dragged him all the way back. It took an hour and a half to get back. We put him down on a bed, we inspect him only two out of three bullets made direct contact with him. Thankfully he worn that body armor. A shot through the chest would be certain death. It took a while to stop the bleeding and bandage him up. I'm just hoping he doesn't die on us. Hopefully he doesn't die in this universe.

"How did this happened…?" Braixen said.

"I'm not sure. But whoever did it wanted him dead." I said.

"The only thing to do now is wait." I replied to everyone.

-Snivy-

"That will do it..." I said.

"Aw..." Charmander replied.

"Don't worry tomorrow we'll get there. Just took some time." I said. While we left the house.

"Hey do you think that Riolu will be okay?" He told me.

"Not sure." I simply replied.

We talked along the way back to the building.

-Shinx-

So, we're going to have to keep an eye on him. He's still breathing thankfully. Everyone take turns watching okay?" I said.

Everyone replied with a simple okay. I was first watch when everyone else slept. I pray he'll be okay. He has to be.

-Riolu-

"Didn't I warn you?"

"Now you suffered."

"You could of won. If you didn't open the door."

"Till we meet again."

...


	11. Chapter 11: Island Final

"Hello, once again."

"It's been awhile. About four weeks."

"Your friends are worried."

"Hopefully you wake from your coma soon."

-Shinx-

It's been about four weeks, since the attack. Riolu was and still out. He may not make it out. We just have to keep hope.

"We need to move sometime you know that?" I told everyone.

"Well we can't carry him everywhere." Braixen said.

"If he doesn't wake up in another two weeks… I think we lost him." I said.

"Who did this though?" Braixen told me.

"Not sure, I'm also wondering." I replied.

The thing or things tried to kill my closest friend. And I'm going to get revenge. I won't let this go. I'm searching next morning.

-Snivy-

Nighttime arrived. The new moon gave the lands an inky look. Complete darkness, Time to start.

-Shinx-

Watching Riolu, I started dazing off. It was late at night when I fell asleep. I woke up many hours later to find that it was still black outside. I walked outside to get some air. Sitting down next to the dim light of the lantern, it was a new moon. It looked scary outside, but I wasn't scared. After seeing what happens in this, I'm no longer scared. After a while I started hearing footsteps. I looked around trying to see through the darkness. It stopped after a while.

"Maybe the wind." I thought.

I got up and walked back inside. It took a while to fall asleep, I finally fell asleep after a while. Waking up next morning, I grabbed my gear and left to find who tried to kill Riolu. Searching around the cabin we found him, I tried looking for any clues. Continuing to search I felt eyes on me. I felt uneasy. I brought Riolu's spiked pipe in case. It was heavy for me, but I lifted it up. Out of the corner of my eye I caught something. Something dressed in camo. I tried making out the figure. When I started to focus, it ran out of view. Something was watching me. Maybe the same thing that attacked Riolu. My guard went up while looking around. I called out trying to get a response. I went inside to search for more stuff. While inside I heard the basement door quickly close. I went to the door and slowly opened it. Looking down the stairs there was nothing, it was complete blackness. I tried to see if anything was down there. It was too dark, I ended up going down. Half way down the stairs I tripped over something. After tumbling down the stairs, I looked up and was in complete darkness. It was like I was blind. The floor was freezing. I started getting up and when I did, I felt the feeling of warm water dripping on me. It was so dark I couldn't see what it was. I just stayed there for awhile till I saw light.

-Liepard-

"Ow! Easy!" I screamed at the two.

"Sorry but… We need to fix your wound." Prinplup said.

"We're trying not to hurt you. Just stand still." Floatzel added.

"That little… Urrrr! He got me good… Glad he's gone." I said.

"Yeah, us too." As they laugh.

While I got stitched up someone ran in.

"Took you long enough..." I said.

"Sorry, I had to ran all the way here." The thing said.

"So, Absol. Got the info?" I told him.

"Yes, I've located the others of Team Star." He said.

"Good, I knew I could count on you, we will strike soon. Gather everyone." I told him.

"Yes, ma'am!" The Absol said running out.

We'll end Team Star this time. They'll never see it coming.

-Umbreon-

Shinx was gone, and I was the one who had to watch Riolu. Everyone else was outside doing whatever. I was just sitting there till someone walked in.

"Here. Let me watch a bit." Braixen said.

"Nah, I don't want to ruin the fun." I replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I just want to be left alone."

"Suit yourself." She walked back outside.

I hated being bothered. I just wanted to be left alone for now. Only if I had something to do. Alone.

-Shinx-

"Urg, my body… Shouldn't of slept on this stone floor..." Getting up.

"Well at lease it's light now." Looking around.

I looked everywhere, I looked down and saw a black liquid.

"This was what dripped on me? Ugh, gross..."

I was covered in the black liquid. I fell asleep right above it. It was sticky and slimy. It felt gross and uncomfortable. I walked around to see what was down there. There wasn't much. The broken glass we shattered before was still there. Walking around I heard the sounds of frozen grass crunching. I looked through the small window and saw something pass it quickly. I freaked out and ran up to see who it was. The black goo felt so heavy on me. I made it to the top and looked through the window. I saw a tall figure lurking outside.

"This is the place." It said.

I heard him say this as we reached to open the door. I hold down the doorknob so it couldn't enter. Once the door twisted it stopped.

"Locked?"

I was holding the knob with my life.

"I can't deal with another thing, I need out of here." While thinking this, the door forcefully flew open as the figure kicked the door down. I launched back, and slammed hard against the wall. The world went black falling onto the floor. A couple minutes later I regained my vision.

"Oh good, your up."

I looked up and saw surprisingly an Greninja staring at me.

"Should've warmed I was going to kick it down, sorry about that."

"Ugh, It's okay… Very painful..." I said hurting everywhere.

"Hopefully you didn't break anything" He said.

"No, I'm good. Are you friendly?" I asked.

"If I was bad, you've be dead already." He said.

"Well that's true… Thanks for not killing me… Well if you are good, do you want to go back to my group?" I asked him.

"Got nothing better to do. So sure." He said.

We walked back talking about some stuff. We got close pretty quickly knowing what's happening to us. We arrived back pretty quickly. Once entering the place, everyone looked at us.

"Who's that?" Braixen said.

"Oh, I found him at the cabin. He had no place to go. So. I took him with me." I said.

"Well if he isn't a murderer, he can stay with us." Espeon said.

"Trust me, I'm not." Greninja said.

"Well you did break my back almost." I told him.

"I said I'm sorry geez." He replied.

We walked around showing him the place

"You're ready for a fallout or something?" Greninja said.

"We found it like this." I replied.

After showing the rest of the place, we planned on spending the night without any work. I decided to watch over Riolu. The Greninja saw him and told me.

"What happened to him? He looks messed up."

"He was shot three times. The shock made him enter a coma." I told me.

"Damn, know who did it?" He asked.

"No, not yet. I want and need to find out. I'll make whoever pay for this." I said back.

After talking a bit more, he walked out and left me alone. It was lonely without my best friend. It's going to be a long night.

-Liepard-

"Take this." Throwing a knife at Floatzel

"What's this? We're already doing this?" He replied.

"Yes, we attack at night. I'm so tried of these kids messing up everything."

I heard the door open, looking over I saw our scout.

"Got everyone?" I said.

"Yes. They're all ready. When will we attack?" Absol told me.

"Thirty minutes from now. We'll end this." I said getting everything ready.

-Shinx-

Midnight inches closer. I felt gross. Been awhile since I took a nice shower. I was just sitting there trying to get the black goo off my body. After a couple minutes I heard nothing outside. I wondered why it was so quiet. I got up and looked outside, it was completely dark. I walked out slowly looking around. Walking to the front door I looked outside. Nothing, it was black. It wasn't a full moon, why was it so dark. I was thinking this while also thinking where everyone was. Hearing a loud blast snapped me out of thinking. Looking through the windows once again, it was still dark. I felt a touch on my back. Turning around quickly I saw a ghostly white figure looking at me.

"Huh?" Confused.

It just stared at me, it felt uncomfortable. Looking at the figure, I started feeling light headed. My vision quickly blurred, and blackness fell over me. I woke up jumping up.

"Oh, ha… That was a strange dream." I said.

"Everything is normal, may have fallen asleep."

The sun was coming up. I got up and walked out of the room. Walking out I saw the Meowth and Pancham working on a new project. And those two were gone once again. Everyone else was out though. Walking to the door I heard the Meowth call to me. I turned around and walked to them.

"Need something?" I said.

"Do you have time?" He asked me.

"Uh, I do have plans later. But I guess I have time." I replied to them.

"Great… Take this." He said giving me a tool.

I guess I have some work to do.

-Liepard-

I grabbed everything and gathered everyone to start going. It's about time we end this.

"Are you sure we're ready? We lost pretty much everything when we entered this place." Absol said.

"Pretty sure, let's just do this." I told everyone.

-Shinx-

Many hours later helping these two were annoying. So many complicated things they wanted me to do. But after three hours I was done.

-Liepard-

Nighttime has fallen. It was time. We grabbed our gear and headed out.

-Shinx-

Uneasy washed over me. Nighttime arrived and I had a feeling. Something bad was going to happen. I warned everyone to stand guard. Something was going to happen, we got to prepare...


	12. Chapter 12: Fortifying

"Wait!" I screamed chasing a blue orb.

"Please!" I continued chasing it.

-Shinx-

I noticed something in the shadows. I ran down and told everyone, something was coming. We grabbed our gear and waited.

"What are we doing?" Braixen said.

"Something was watching the place. Three of them." I told her.

"Shadows?" She asked.

"No, looked like something purple..." I replied.

"Purple? Strange. Keep an eye out." Poochyena said.

We kept a lookout till, we heard something. The sound sounded like a drill. After a few minutes, the sound turned into scraping metal.

"Where is that noise coming from?" Poochyena asked.

"No idea spread apart. I'll take the upstairs." I replied.

"Espeon and I have the back." Replied Umbreon.

"Zorua and I will take the sides." Houndour said.

"I guess Braixen and I will take the outer…" Poochyena told me.

We spread apart and searched everywhere. The noise was coming outside for now, it was very annoying metal scraping was the worst sound. It took a few more minutes then the noise stopped.

"Huh?" I thought.

Walking back to the main floor, I caught something outside. I radio everyone to meet up. Meowth and Pancham were just sitting.

"Did you see anything?" I asked.

"No…? Why?" Replied Meowth.

"I saw something outside. Just watch out okay?" I said.

"Uh, okay. I'll keep an eye out I guess." Sounding uninterested.

Everyone met up and I told everyone. They thought someone was trying to break in. It took a moment before we made someone go out. And that someone was me. I grabbed a simple weapon and walked out. Walking out in the cold night I saw footprints. I followed it till they ended, it was strange. They couldn't just disappear. Continuing to search I started feeling watched.

"Hello? Anyone there?" I said into the darkness.

I started hearing the footsteps quieting. I started getting scared and tried going in. As I was reaching the door, I heard something behind me. I didn't think twice, I swung Riolu's spike pipe. I felt the it go into something. I tried seeing into the darkness five feet away. The thing didn't have a reaction, it took another moment before I felt it. The blunt hit. The hit blasted me through the doors, it was a massive blow. Even with the hit, it didn't hurt much for some reason. I thought it would've broken my ribs, it didn't do anything though. I looked up and saw nothing.

"Are you okay?! What happened?" Braixen told me.

"Shoot into the darkness!" I screamed.

I heard Braixen and Meowth shoot through the doors. I stood down so I wouldn't be shot, I tried crawling away. As I was doing so I felt my foot being pulled. I tried holding onto something, it wasn't useful. I got pulled half way out the door till I was let go. Quickly getting up and running to the others, it took a second for me to grab the pipe and throwing it out the doors. I heard something scream.

"Got you!" I ran out into the darkness and tackled down the injured figured.

I started punching it, after getting some hits, I was hit on my side. I finally felt a crack, that time the blow broke my arm. I screamed in pain as the thing who hit me starting using the object to attack me. The pain was intense till I heard a gunshot and the hitting stopped. I looked up and saw Braixen aiming above me.

"Back off! I will kill someone!" Braixen screamed.

I never seen Braixen like this. It was strange. At lease she saved me, I was pulled back by some others. They laid me down and tried finding something for a splint. They found some wood and tied them together. After locking my arm into place, the rest ran inside and locked the door. They were concerned about me. I told them, I was fine.

"Get ready. They're dressed in black. That's why we couldn't see them." Poochyena told everyone.

Everyone geared up and got ready.

-Riolu-

"Stop!" I shouted.

I continued running through forests and different areas. I finally caught up to it and grabbed it. As I grabbed it, I fell down a massive steep hill. I couldn't feel pain. Holding tight onto the orb, I was surrounded in a bright blue mist. Next thing I knew, my eyes shot open. I was in a strange bed. Once my hearing came back, I heard the sounds of heavy items moving.

"Ugh… What happened? My head feels like exploding..." I thought and got up.

I opened the door next to me, and saw everyone. I was wondering how long I was out.

"Guys…?" I said groggily.

"Riolu?!" Shinx said in surprised.

Everyone ran over and knocked me over.

"Your crushing me! What happened?" I tried screaming but too weak.

"We need to get going. Or at lease fight." Shinx said.

"You were out for weeks, but now we need to get going." Braixen told me.

Shinx then handed me, my pipe. They told me what's happening, once that I woke up more.

"Well, if we're in danger we need to go..." I said.

I started hearing a drill sound coming from the door. I got ready for fighting.

-Shinx-

"Riolu try and get to cover. You're still very weak." I told him.

Riolu agreed and hid in cover. We all got ready for battle. Aiming everything at the door and waited for it to open. The drill continued till it stopped. We heard the locks breaking, it took a second before it blasted open. We fired many shots into the dark, trying to hit anything. My broken arm was making it difficult aiming, but I still manged to shoot clearly. After we stopped firing, I saw something roll in. I noticed it was a smoke bomb.

"Hide in the smoke!" I screamed as the bomb exploded.

All I could see was smoke. It was lasting a long time for a smoke bomb. I tried fanning the area out, but the grenade kept leaking smoke out. Running into many things I finally found the others, we all tried making it somewhere that wasn't smoking. We locked ourselves in a room. We noticed a hatch in the floor, I tried opening it but it wasn't opening. Riolu smashed it open with the spiked pipe. We all ducked in and hid in the basement. It was completely black, it wasn't possible to see anything. I tried listening for any movement above. Once three minutes passed it was quiet.

"I'm going to go look." I told everyone.

"No, I'll go." Said Riolu.

"No your not, your still recovering." I replied.

"I can handle myself. I'll go..." He said climbing out.

"This is stupid!" I whispered to him.

-Riolu-

I climbed out, it was quiet. Too quiet. I peaked out the door and saw nothing. I slowly opened the door and walked out, it was strange. Just a few minutes ago we were being attacked, now there wasn't anything. I kept an eye out waiting for something to happen. Everything seemed normal, I walked back and told the others. They all got out and got out their weapons. It was empty, we walked outside and noticed everything was normal.

-Snivy-

"Where are we?"

"No idea."

"Where are you? I'm blindfolded."

"Don't ask me, I'm blindfolded as well."

"Hello, Anyone here?!"

"No use, try and break these bindings."

-Riolu-

Everyone was ready to go out and escape this place. We got all we could and headed out.

"So where are we even going to go?" Braixen said.

"Somewhere else. This place isn't safe…" I said.

"I know who attacked us..." I whispered.

"What? Who?" Shinx said.

"Team Vortex..." I said under my breath.

"What? Team Vortex?! How'd they get here?" Braixen said surprised.

"Not sure… We'll talk about it later. Let's get going." I told everyone.

We walked back to the frozen beach, the ice seemed to have solid again. We quickly spread apart and walked across the ocean of ice. Half way through, we looked back. We saw those things staring us at. They then pointed something at us and starting shooting.

"Quicker!" I screamed.

We started jogging till we heard the ice starting to crack. We barely made it across when the ice collapsed. The ice started crumbling, it was kind of good. As it will delay them following us. We continued into the snowy forest without looking back. We headed back to Emerald City. It took the entire night to reach it again. When we did, we had to set up base. It was still night, the night was taking forever.

"Now we're here, what do we do?" Braixen told me.

"Fortify this place. Take this." I said throwing Braixen an Axe.

"Where did you get this?" She asked.

"Uh, found it back there, we can use it for wood building." I replied.

We started chopping wood and digging traps, to fortifying the city. It had to withstand attacks. Team Vortex probably already knew where we headed. I had to stay out of working due to lack of strength. Everyone was gathering supplies to start building. We were getting ready for something. Something big. After the entire night, we had enough stuff. The day was finally rising. We had enough wood for simple builds. We started making planks out of wood, we made many wooden things like spikes, barricades, and other things. After crafting enough, we got to work.

-Liepard-

"How did they escape?!" I screamed at the group.

"Ple- Please calm down!" Absol said.

I turned and kicked him across the room, into the wall.

"You, shut up!" I yelled at him.

"I'll… Be quiet… Sorry." He scattered away.

"Find them, now!" I screamed, as everyone ran away.

-Riolu-

It's been three hours and we already got a decent amount done. Once we got enough done, we continued talking about how they got here. It was going to take awhile for them to leave the island. We secured the main gates, it took only three hours. It will take two weeks to complete the entire city.

-Shinx-

The sun was high up, when we decided to walk around. We walked around and kept an eye open for weak spots. Once we finished are search, we continued to fortify the city. They'll come again, much more powerful. We're going to need to get ready. A war may be coming...


	13. Chapter 13: Stalked

"Four weeks food, Three and a half water." Counting down the supplies.

"Should've brought more. This won't last long." Shinx told me.

"Well it's the best we got out. We'll just find more somehow." I replied.

I continued checking stock and defense. It wasn't enough, not enough to hold off an attack. We continued to work on defense mostly. After a day, it looked defended. We kept on adding solid defenses for safety, it was almost done.

-Charmander-

"Try and move closer. I need to cut these." I told Snivy.

"Watch it, don't take my hand off." He told me.

"I'll try not to. Just about… And, free!" I said taking off my blindfold.

"Whoa, where are we?" Snivy questioned.

We were in a dark room, it felt weird. Something wasn't right about this room. We quickly looked for a way to get out, after searching we found a vent. I looked at Snivy.

"Oh, no, no. I'm not going." He said.

"Look, your the smallest. Just get in and out. Try and look for a lock or something." I told him.

After arguing for a bit he agreed. He crawled through and I waited.

-Riolu-

"Can't I do something to help? I'm fine." I told Shinx.

"You're still weak, eat and regain your strength. I'm not letting you work yourself to hard." He scold me.

I just sat there. Thinking what will happen, it wasn't hard for something bad to happen.

-Liepard-

I waited for three hours, till someone came in.

"Uh, sorry to report this. But they may have left the island."

"Find them. I'm going to call backup." I replied.

"Wait, wait. No!. Not that team! They're the worst." He yelled at me.

"Shut up. We're calling them in. They know how to track. Now go continue searching," I snapped at him.

-Shinx-

The defenses were looking good. We tried reinforcing them the best we could. Everyone besides Meowth and Greninja were working. I walked up to them wondering why they weren't working.

"Why are you just sitting around? We have to prepare for anything." I asked.

"Uh, I don't really feel like working. I'll just keep an eye out." Meowth told me.

I stared at him then walked away. It was hard enough trying to keep supplies up. When we were brought to this place, our backpacks were empty besides some scraps. We could risk it and return to the island. But it was just too dangerous. The forested area around the City slowly was chopped down. Nighttime was arriving quickly, we were just about done for tonight. I continued working through the night. Day arrived and I was still working. The entire front side was boarded up. Once I finished, I went to sleep.

-Liepard-

"Very good. Any other info?"

"Yes, I may know where they went." I said.

"Known locations?"

"Snowflake City, Emerald City, and Ruby Mountain. Check those first." I told the member.

"Will do, I'll report back soon."

-Riolu-

"Ugh, I'm so bored!" I said laying down.

I started to roll around, trying to find something to do. I noticed my bag next to the door. I got up and looked inside. It still had the fire sapphire. Still glowing it's beautiful orange. I picked it up and noticed, it was shining brighter then before. No lights were on, it was strange. When I hold it up I noticed something. The light was fading away, when I moved it else where, it started glowing bright again.

"Huh? Pretty cool." I thought.

I continued messing around with it, till I heard the door open.

"Uh, what are you doing?" I heard Meowth.

"Trying to entertain myself."

"Well uh, Pancham and I were going to go search for some stuff. I wanted to see if you wanted to come." He told me.

"Finally, sure I'll go." I happily agreed.

The three of us, sent off to search for metals and more supplies. At lease I wasn't bored.

-Shinx-

I saw the three leave as I continue putting up walls. I wanted to stop them, but I let them go. We needed the supplies anyways, it's been about two days without problem. Hopefully it stays that way for a bit longer.

-Unknown-

"A-1, have you got the target?"

"A-4, we have contact. Waiting the go."

"You're clear to go A-1."

-Riolu-

We continued through many different places, till we found a downed chopper. We were excited to finally have found something, after searching for two hours. Trying to open the door, it was completely heated shut. It seemed to still be extremely hot, we went to grab some water in-order to cool the door to break it off. After pouring the water, it rusted up and we pulled it off. The chopper had no one inside. Thankfully. It looked like it had just fell from the sky. We found containers, lifting them was a challenge but we pulled it out of the wreak. Lifting the tops off we noticed it had small amount of food and water. The other two had ammo and coordinates. The coordinates were hard to read, I tried making them out but couldn't. We put all the items in one container and dragged it slowly back to the city.

-Shinx-

The defenses were looking good so far. Hopefully those three will be back soon. I kept an eye open for any trouble, Umbreon and Houndour went around the city to find weak points again. Maybe this could work there's about twelve of us. I waited for them to come back.

-Unknown-

"Target located."

"Keep distance for now. Report any changes."

"Copy."

-Riolu-

It started raining a bit. We hurried trying to get the supplies back before it started pouring. My luck was high enough, we made it back before downpour. Shinx saw us hauling the hundred pound crate. He quickly opened the makeshift gate and let us in. After in, we all collapsed with exhaustion. Shinx opened up the crate to see it's items.

"Where did you find this?" He questioned.

"We found a downed chopper. We found these in it." I told him.

"Helicopter? Where?" He questioned again.

"About three miles north from here. It looked fresh. Maybe a survivor or survivors escaped it." Meowth said.

We continued to talk before getting up again to move the crate. We moved it near a supplies building, after placing it where it needed to go, we walked back to the front gate. Looking around nothing was out of the ordinary. We just watched for anything strange for the night.

-Unknown-

"Confirmed target."

"Number of enemies?"

"Three at the gate. Rest unknown."

"Scout ahead. Report any information."

-Pikachu-

"Back off, I'm warning you!" I yelled.

The shadows kept crawling towards me, I started firing at them. The shots echoed miles and miles. It's going to cause more to rush to me. I quickly climbed a nearby rock, and tried looking for an escape route. In the distance I saw a city.

-Riolu-

Hours of nothing. I got tried and went to sleep.

-Shinx-

With Riolu asleep, that leaves me to watch alone. It was about midnight almost. And the rain began to pour heavily. Sitting around just waiting to switch out, I saw bushes starting to move. It wasn't wind that did it, it looked like an entity who moved it. I stood up and aimed my scoped pistol at the movement. I started listening through the rain, as I was doing so, something caught my eyes. I saw a barrel of a shotgun. It took a second to register what I saw. I stayed down to avoid being spotted.

"I'm not gonna mess with a shotgun." I thought to myself.

Staying out of sight, I heard footsteps. The thing started walking towards the gates. After silence for a couple seconds, I heard knocking. Looking down I saw a Pikachu.

"A Pikachu? What's one doing here?" I thought.

I slowly made it down, and looked through the wood.

"Hello? I need some help..." I heard the Pikachu say.

Staying quiet for a few minutes, I slowly spoke.

"Drop your weapon."

The Pikachu heard and slowly dropped the shotgun. After that I slowly opened the gate. I saw the Pikachu standing there. His hands on his head.

"Don't shoot, I'm just looking for a place to stay. I was attacked by tons of shadows." He told me.

I motioned him inside. I grabbed his weapon and walked in as well. He had a massive spec op backpack, with melee armor.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned.

"I've been traveling around. I found this place when I was being attacked." He said.

"Where did you find all that stuff? How long where you here?" I questioned again.

"I scavenged a military base. And I've been here for about two years." He told me.

Two years being in this deadly place. Impressive. I continued to question him, once an hour came I ended all the questions. I showed him a place to sleep, he gladly took it and I walked out. The rain continued falling, as I went back to keep guard. Tomorrow was gonna be a long day...


	14. Chapter 14 Mega: Military Arrival

It got cold. Freezing in one night. The rain turned into snow around two am.

"Gonna get sick..." I thought.

I was shaking hard. I couldn't handle it anymore, I walked inside where that Pikachu was. Walking in, I saw he was in a deep sleep. After looking, I saw his bag. The urge to look was too much, walking over and slowly unzipping it. This bag was a special military grade spec op bag. It looked massive while on your back, but looked pretty small sitting on the floor. Continuing to unzip it, I noticed a box inside it. After three minutes trying not to wake him up, the bag was opened. Looking inside carefully, he had about ten boxes of shotgun rounds.

"Always prepared… Smart." I said in my head.

I kept searching around, only finding more ammo, GPS, Maps. And for some reason tons of painkillers and antibiotics. Mostly normal stuff. Before closing the bag, I saw a notepad. I fought the urge to read it and closed the bag. His shotgun had pretty interesting attachments to it also. He had a rangefinder, flashlight, and laser sight, on the muzzle area. Grip and ammo holder, under the barrel. And for some reason a silencer. For a Winchester it could surely hold tons of things. It started snowing pretty hard after an hour. Wetness turned to ice, I decided to sleep due to how cold it was getting. I slowly drifted into sleep.

-Unknown-

"The last one fell asleep."

"Sneak in now. Try and gather supplies."

"Will do… Report soon."

-Liepard-

"So you finally showed." I said annoyed.

"Yes, it was hard entering this universe."

"Well do you remember you mission?" I asked.

"Yes. We'll make sure it's over with."

-Snivy-

"It's freaking cold. How much further?" I asked.

"I'm not cold. Anyways not far now. Should take about ten more minutes." Charmander said.

"Hopefully we get somewhere warm… Where did the others go anyways?" I questioned.

"Pretty sure they abandoned us. Unless they moved." He said.

We continued making our way through the snow.

-Riolu-

I woke up from a sudden pain. The pain made me jump up in shock. I couldn't fall back to sleep, I just watched outside. It started snowing when I was asleep. Everyone was still asleep, even Shinx fell asleep. I was bored and about to pass out.

-Pikachu-

"Ugh, stupid pain."

I woke up and sat up.

"Great, the pain's back..."

I got up and reached into my bag, and pulled out some medicine. After taking it, I got up, and looked outside. It was snowing pretty hard. I took off my body armor. Looking down my stomach was dark red. There was no skin, just flesh and blood. I sharply inhaled at the sight of it.

"At lease it stopped bleeding… Good."

"I don't know how long I'll survive. Let's hope I still have time… And hopefully they don't find out." I thought.

"That thing messed me up…" I continued.

After easing the pain enough, I fell back asleep.

-Unknown-

"Big bro?! Please come out!" I screamed.

"I'm scared! Please, I don't want to be alone!" I began to sob.

I continued walking around, wiping away tears. This place wasn't friendly, it terrified me.

-Riolu-

Day arrived. Everyone was up and about. I noticed they were all grouped together. I was wondering what was going on. Walking out I saw a Pikachu. He had a shotgun with him. I noticed it was the Pikachu from the bunker.

"I told you already, I found this place from a high rock I climbed." Pikachu said to everyone.

"You are geared insanely." Braixen said.

"Can never be prepared."

The ground was coated with a thick blanket of snow. I got Meowth and Pancham to go exploring again to find more stuff. After packing our things we left.

-Pikachu-

"Can I just be let alone for a bit?" I asked.

"Everyone let's give him some space." Shinx said.

Everyone finally backed off. This attention was worrying me. I quickly ran back inside the house.

-Charmander-

"Watch out!" I screamed.

Hearing the whooshing sound of bullets next to me.

"Follow me!" Snivy told me.

We ran into a ditch trying to hide from our attackers.

-Riolu-

We went back to the chopper. It was still abandoned. We went further this time, trying to find more stuff. It took an hour till we found a cabin. Looking around to see any traps, we didn't see anything and proceeded to the cabin. We walked in and looked around, it was in good condition. We searched around for anything to use. Entering a bedroom I started hearing shaky sobbing. I was confused. Someone else was in here with us, I stood on guard.

"Guys, come here." I whispered.

Everyone came over and we started to look for the noise. It came from a nearby closet. We all got something for defense out. I slowly grabbed the handle and pulled it aside. Once I slid it open all the way, I saw a crying Pichu.

"Uh, what?" Meowth said.

"Why is there a Pichu here?" Pancham added.

The Pichu looked up with terrified eyes. She ran into me and burst into tears. I didn't attempt to pull her away, I just let her hug me.

"Uh, this is weird." Meowth said.

I tried calming the Pichu down but was unsuccessful. She just continued crying into my chest.

"Do you know her?" Pancham told me.

"No, never seen her in my life." I replied.

After a couple more minutes, she finally calmed down. I finally asked something.

"Who are you? You look very young." I told her.

She looked up with wide eyes. It was strange seeing someone this young in this death trap. I tried backing up but she launched at me again.

"Don't leave me!" She screamed in my chest.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

She was still in shock, she probably found out what was out there. I couldn't even move without her freaking out.

"Well it isn't safe here. Can we take you somewhere safer?" I asked.

She simply replied with a nod. I had to carry her on my back. Once we got all set we all headed back to our city. The Pichu was wrapped around my neck, she wouldn't let go for anything. She fell asleep on the way back, it will take another two hours to reach the city again. We kept walking.

-Shinx-

"Where are them?" I grew impatient.

Pikachu was acting weird also. Starting to regret accepting him. I kept a look out for Riolu and the others.

-Pikachu-

"It's getting worst..." I thought.

The wound on my stomach just keeps getting worst. I may only have about five days left. I wasn't going to turn into one of those things. If I don't find a cure soon, I'll have to do something I don't want to do. I continued tending to the massive wound.

-Riolu-

Dusk was falling. Pichu still asleep hooked onto me. We saw the city in the distance when we heard something next to us. We all looked over and saw glowing eyes. We freaked out and ran, continuing to sprint, I heard Meowth scream.

"Faster! I think something is chasing us!"

I tried looking back, but due to how fast I was sprinting I couldn't risk tripping. Especially with Pichu on my back. The city was right in front of us. Running to the gates we mostly broke it down getting through. Shinx was jolted awake by the noise. We looked back after entering to see something in the distance.

-Pikachu-

I had to leave in case my timing wasn't on point. I walked back to some places I visited, trying to find a cure. If I don't make it in time, at lease I'm not putting these others in trouble.

-Liepard-

"They found a Pikachu." I said.

"Yes, he left though." Floatzel said.

"Eliminate him if he gets in the way then." I said.

-Riolu-

We explained why a Pichu was with us. After that we put it in bed, and waited for it to wake up. After that we also explained what was chasing us. There was something watching us. I feel it.

-Pikachu-

I entered the military base, it was still abandoned. Didn't get touched yet. I started looking around to find a cure. While I was looking, I heard something.

-Riolu-

"How are we going to cut the food? We can't just bring more survivors here." Shinx said.

"She's like five. We couldn't just leave her." I said, sounding annoyed.

"Doesn't matter. We need to focus on surviving." He started arguing.

"So, mostly you'll let her die?" Braixen said.

"Stop being such a selfish D." Poochyena cut in.

Shinx just walked away. Everyone was just standing around, after silence for a couple of seconds, we just went our ways. Shinx's been only looking out for himself since high school. Nighttime arrived shortly after, everyone was just up and checking defense. After checking some stuff, I went to sleep.

-Pikachu-

I hid behind some massive boxes, trying not to make noise from the pain. I heard footsteps walking closer and closer. Trying to keep my breathing quiet, they started getting closer. The infection was getting worst, I started getting lightheaded. I tried to stay still, it wasn't working. My vision started to blur. I tried laying down. I must've fell asleep, after waking up it was the middle of the night. It was surprising that I wasn't killed. Taking off my armor, I saw the wound completely black. I only had about six hours left. Whoever was there left, now I can look before it was too late. Hopefully they didn't find the cure.

-Liepard-

"They reported them at Emerald City." Floatzel said.

"About time, we'll get ready. They forgot many things on this island." I said.

-Snivy-

"We've been walking forever..." I complained.

"Remember, we're going to Snowflake City." Charmander said.

"It took three days just to leave that island..." I told him.

"It will take about another day till we reach it." He told me.

We continued walking to our destination.

-Riolu-

I woke up around two am. It was freezing, it was snowing again. More like a blizzard. I put heavy clothes on, and walked out. Visibility was low, I tried walking around but the wind was pushing me everywhere. It took some time, but I made it to the main gate. Shinx was on guard, it was stupid of him. He'll get hypothermia. I tried talking to him many times, he didn't respond. He was still mad at me. Before I left I gave him some blankets. After that I walked into the place with the Pichu. Still asleep, she's been asleep for a while now. I started trying to wake her up, she stirred a bit but stayed asleep. After a bit more of trying to wake her up, I gave up. Deciding to head back to sleep, Shinx was still there. I just headed off to bed.

-Unknown-

It took some time. But I found where they are. I may have to sneak in. Unless they're friendly, I don't want to walk up to them. They have guns. While thinking I heard talking.

"So is this place the place?"

"Yes, I seen them take things there."

"Good, now. How do we get in?"

"Not sure. Let's try and sneak in."

"Sound's pretty good. Let's try it. Follow my lead."

-Riolu-

Day started rising. I got up early and went out. The snow slowed, I looked around still waking up. I noticed strange looking footprints in the snow. Examining it closer it looked different from all of ours. They were small. Very small, it looked strange. Maybe nothing I thought. After waking up enough, I grabbed my gear and headed outside for a bit. Before I left, I told everyone who was awake. Leaving it felt, uneasy. It didn't bother me much, probably because this place wasn't our normal home. Keeping my guard up, I started exploring around a bit.

-Unknown-

I've been walking for a week without rest. It started effecting my performance. Growing tried I finally found a small camp near by. Walking close enough I saw three figures there. It wasn't going to go well, they looked armed, heavily armed. Slowly walking up to them, one noticed me. He pulled what looked like a Remington XP-100, with a modify I never seen on a gun before. I quickly put my hands up. Trying not to make them shoot. The others had a UZI handgun. They headed towards me, they said to drop my bag. I did what I was told. They quickly checked it, finding no weapons besides my Swiss Dagger and Hunting Sword. After searching everything I got, they threw it back, saying nothing. I quickly put it back on my back, after knowing I had nothing that can cause harm straight away, they putted their guns away. They said I could stay with them for a while. I decided to stay a bit, to warm up. Then I'll adventure to my destination once more.

-Riolu-

It was almost four hours till I found a nice area to set up camp. I wanted to spend the rest of the day there. Once I got everything up. I pulled out some random supplies, after taking everything out, I chopped some wood. Breaking them down, I started building a small shelter from the cold. It took some time but I finally finished it. After that was relaxing.

-Umbreon-

"Okay, Espeon, how much time do we have?" I questioned.

"About ten hours. Enough to finish this project." She replied.

"Do we even have enough supplies? Doesn't look like it." I said.

"If we conserve it, then yes. Remember the design?" She asked me.

"Yes, it will be quite hard. But I'm sure it'll turn out nicely." I replied back.

We got to work on a device that could help us survive. I wondered how Shinx was doing.

-Unknown-

Many hours passed, just sitting around. I decided to continue on my journey. It wasn't going to be tough, they gave me some stuff to survive. After walking away, something struck me. I turned around and looked everywhere, nothing.

"Huh? I thought I was being followed. Uh, maybe..." I thought, I started picking up my speed.

I was at a light run, when I heard a gunshot. I looked back and saw the three standing there. I freaked out and stood still.

"Whoa, I thought we were friendly!" I screamed to them.

"We are. We're not letting you go alone." One said.

I was confused, they wanted to come with me. I didn't really trust the idea at first. But accepted after a little. I was still aware of what they did, I didn't know them much. We continued to my destination. Emerald City.

-Pichu-

I woke up. The first thing I noticed was, I was in a strange building. It was really cold, I sat up and just stayed there for a few minutes, before getting up.

-Shinx-

"Riolu's making a massive mistake. If he won't do it, I'll have too." I thought.

I continued angrily hammering stuff into the walls.

-Riolu-

Night was rising once again. I got enough done for today, and headed back. It was nine when I got back, once entering it was empty. I looked around then noticed everyone was in the medical center. Entering they all saw me, I may have looked like a zombie. I was really tried from working all day.

"What happened to you?" Shinx said.

"Doesn't matter. What's going on?" I questioned.

"Well, Poochyena found a box of things in here. We can't open it." Braixen said.

I groaned.

"Did you try busting it open with a heavy object?" I replied.

"Already tried. It's a really tough padlock." Shinx said.

I pushed everyone aside and gave it a forceful kick. Nearly shattering my foot. Doing so I heard a metal noise. The padlock fell off. Clutching my foot, Shinx opened the box.

"How'd you do that? Looked extremely painful." Braixen said.

"Many years of training, anyways what's in there?" I said.

"Maps? That's strange." Shinx said confused.

I grabbed the maps and saw they were different locations in Yuka.

"Snowflake City, Emerald City, Midnight Forest, Golden Road, Diamond Road, and seven more." I said.

"What does this mean? Are these locations of special things or something?" Zorua said.

"Not sure, maybe. Only way to find out." Houndour said.

"I'm pretty sure this is Emerald City's secret." Umbreon said.

After talking, we all went to sleep. I stayed up a little longer to see what the maps meant.

-Unknown-

"There it is, Emerald City." I said.

"Hmh, I believe it's occupied. Look at those defenses." Someone said.

"If it is, we could try getting access." I said.

"How?"

"Not sure, just try and play nice."

"Let's try it then."

We set up camp, till morning. Trying to start a small fire, it created a very bright flash for some reason. We just burned it out to avoid attention.

-Shinx-

For a split second, I saw a flash of light in the forest. I didn't think much of it and continued guarding.

-Pichu-

I'm scared. I wondered where my big bro went. A Riolu took me with them, I guess it was for safety. I want my big bro, he protects me no matter what. I hope I see him soon.

-Liepard-

"About time, now we're ready to head off." I said.

We gathered many things for the long adventure. It won't take more then a week.

-Riolu-

It was the middle of the night. I woke up and went outside. It took a second to realize, it was a new moon. It didn't matter, I grabbed a flashlight and exited the city. Trying to make my way back to the camp I tripped over something. Looking down there was a backpack. It must've been holding bricks, it was solid. Picking up it and opening it, I found it was filled with books.

"What? Books? I thought it would've had some ammo and guns." I thought.

Trying to make sense of it, I heard noise. I turned around and saw something sneaking around. For some reason he didn't see the light from my flashlight. I quickly turned it off and tried following it. After a minute of following, it started heading around the city. I didn't think when I jumped it. It was pretty weak, the thing fell with one jump. Jumping on him I laid on top of it trying to strip it from any weapons. The thing only had a simple pocket knife, and a Glock 35. Once striping it, I let it up. He mostly launched up and tried getting away. But it was too slow. I threw the flashlight and hit it's knee, knocking it back down. It didn't take much till it gave up. Shining the light on the thing he was wearing military grade armor. I removed the helmet and saw it was male, and was an Emolga.

"Let me go!" He screamed.

I shoved some cloth I had in his mouth. He started struggling to break free.

"Shut up!" I whisper shouted.

He stopped and lay there. It took a minute of laying on top of him for him to completely stop. He just sat there staring into my eyes. Terror filled his eyes, he then started trying to talk. I ripped the cloth out and he spoke.

"Don't hurt me… I was just looking around..." He said.

"Then why were you sneaking?" I asked.

"I didn't want to get caught by those things..." He replied.

Suddenly I felt awful. I overreacted. Torturing wasn't my thing at all, and I did it. I quickly jumped off him and let him up. He got up and was too scared to run. He stood there petrify. I didn't know he would be like this, mostly because he worn heavy things. After a while he fell to the ground again.

"Uh, are you all right?" I said.

"I literally peed myself. You caught me by surprise..." He replied.

"Sorry, I overreacted. This place made me on edge at all times." I said.

He was still pretty petrified, I offer to take him into the city. He agreed shaking. I can't believe I scared him this much. Entering I showed him a place where he can sleep. He quickly fell asleep, after that I continued adventuring outside. The backpack was still there, I decided to take it for fun. Books, strange many something about combat. I toss the backpack over the wall and walked into the forest.

-Unknown-

I was awoken but crunching snow. I looked up from the freezing ground. I looked and saw the others were asleep, I grew worried and grabbed one of their guns. Laying there, gun ready, the noise got louder. Trying to see through the darkness, I could barely make out something that looked like a Riolu. The Riolu continued making a noisy approach till he went away. He continued his way north. I wondered where he was going. I slowly got up, and started following him.

-Riolu-

I made my way to my campsite. It wasn't far from the city, it took an hour to reach it. Once I reached it, I started to just mess around and continued working on it. It was decent temperature though it was a blizzard yesterday. And night. After continuously working on a privet camp, I got tried and just decided to sleep there.

-Pikachu-

I destroyed the place trying to find samples of T-52. The cure was nowhere to be found. I started losing strength. My blood was turning a gooey black. I didn't have much time yet, I refuse to become one of those shadow things. I continued searching.

-Unknown-

I followed this Riolu to a campsite. He took about three hours working on it. It was probably his camp. Starting to see sun, I started running back to my camp so the others don't think I left them.

-Umbreon-

"Did we really have to stay up all night?" I complained.

"Yes, we need this done as soon as possible." She scolded me.

"Yeah, but I need sleep also..." I mumbled.

"Just hold out, we're nearly done." She said.

-Shinx-

After another boring night watch, I finally had time off. I went to where Braixen, Poochyena and Houndour were. They were working on a strange thing.

"What is that thing?" I said.

"Oh, we're working on a metal detector." Braixen said.

"Metal… Detector…? And why? You could be working with Umbreon and Espeon. Their working on something pretty interesting." I said back.

"Don't hate, this can be useful. Using this we can find metals and mine them." Poochyena said.

"And how do you even make this work, without wire and sensors." I questioned.

"We find ways." Braixen simply said.

I grew bored and left. I ended up noticing Riolu was gone. He didn't say he was leaving to me. While walking down the street I noticed an Emolga. I quickly wondered what he was doing in here. I pulled out my 9mm and walked up to him.

"Hey! What are you doing here?!" I yelled at him.

He froze in shock and turned around.

"Don't shoot! I thought this place was safe, A Riolu brought me in!" He screamed back at me.

"When?" I questioned.

"Last night, he found me..." He said back.

I lowered my gun and got mad.

"Again?! First that Pichu now this… We're not gonna survive..." I thought.

I ended up letting him stay, and went back to guarding.

-Riolu-

I woke up with the sun shining on me. It was blinding, I got up and stayed around for a bit. Hopefully they didn't worry much, I was gone the entire night and half of the day. After eating and sitting around, I got up and headed back.

-Pikachu-

I could barely do anything, the pain was too much. I was on my knees trying to stand, it wasn't working. My skin turned a sickly dark gray. I fell to the ground, ready to face my end. While drifting into blackness, I saw something. Glowing green. I couldn't be.

"It… Was here..." My thoughts everywhere.

I tried reaching for it, but before I did, I saw something pick it up. I looked up and saw a Charmander. He quickly smashed the only cure all over me. Doing so made me pass out.

-Snivy-

"Why'd you do that?" I questioned.

"He's infected. I had to quickly do it. He may go back to normal, if the illness didn't get to his brain and heart." Charmander replied.

"I think I saw this Pikachu before." I said.

"Because we had. I wonder why he's here." Charmander said.

"Oh by the way, I know where the others went." I told him.

"Really? When were you doing to share this?" He told me.

"Uh, sometime… Anyways their at Emerald City, not sure how long though." I said.

After talking, we picked up the Pikachu and headed to Emerald City.

-Riolu-

On my way back, I heard a strange buzzing noise. It kept getting louder till I knew what it was. I looked up in the sky and saw a, cargo helicopter. I was completely bewildered. It was heading the way of the island, it concerned me. Maybe some rescue, I thought. But while it was flying it dropped something near the city. I ran towards the falling box.

"Was there a carepackage?!" I thought.

I ran really fast before it fell to the ground. It was strange, I thought things like helicopters didn't work in this place. I continued running, not realizing there were things watching me.

-Shinx-

We all looked up and saw a big box falling from the sky. We all walked outside to see, it had the dagger icon on the side.

"Whoa, military?!" Braixen exclaimed.

The dagger icon, it was military delta. The bomb icon was military beta. So on, so on.

"When did the military enter this realm?" Poochyena said.

Everyone started talking at once, trying to figure out why and what they were doing here. As we did so, the box landed.

-Riolu-

I slid down the hill leading to the city. The box made snow, dirt and dust fly up. It must be really heavy to do that. I mostly ran into the box. Looking around it, I noticed a dagger icon. Military delta. Why were they were, I thought. I grabbed my pipe and tried prying it open. Everyone grabbed something sharp and tried prying it open with me. It took a ton of energy, but the side fell down. Almost crushing all of us, when it was clear we looked in. It had tons and tons of random stuff. It contained ammo, foods, waters, supplies. And most important random guns and armors. It also contained more maps, and cords.

"Uh… This is strange. Are they trying to help? Or dropped it by accident?" Braixen said.

"Not sure, pretty sure it's ours now." Shinx said.

"If it mean's surviving then we'll take it." I said.

Everyone started grabbing all they could, and started unloading them into the city. It took many, many painful trips. But finally got every last bit. It was tiring, we all fell asleep. Not that smart.

-Charmander-

"We're almost there. This Pikachu wasn't waking up though." I started wondering if that thing worked.

"We're almost there…? How much longer?" Snivy said to me.

"Well the city is about an hour away. Just keep carrying him." I replied.

"Then let's hurry, I'm tried." He said back.

We continued on our way.

-Military-

"Sir, we dropped our package successfully."

"Good job, it will take another three months, till we can rescue them."

"One more thing."

"What is it?"

"I believe Team Vortex is also here."

"Are you sure? I thought Team Lava would be here. If you find any members of Vortex, get rid of them."

"Yes sir. Going back to my duties. Report soon."

-Unknown-

We kept our distance. The carepackage was completely raided.

"They really just looted it all..."

"Ask for some?" I said.

"I guess we can try. Let's wait a bit more."

We waited a bit.

-Riolu-

I woke up, I was still sore lifting all that stuff. It was midday, I got up and headed outside. Many minutes later, I checked on Emolga. He was sound asleep. Like everyone right now, I just sat around. Couldn't go back to sleep for some reason, something was bothering me. I continued looking into the distance.

-Charmander-

"There it is. Emerald City..." I said.

"Good… Walked miles carrying this Pikachu." Snivy replied back.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get going." I said.

We walked down to the city, hoping to find everyone.

-Military-

"Team eight, will go to Emerald City. Team five, will go to Snowflake City. And team seven, will go to Diamond Road. You will find survivors, we need to bring them back alive."

-Unknown-

"I heard another helicopter. It was strange."

We looked up and saw it drop many papers. I picked one up, and read it.

-Riolu-

I picked up a paper from another helicopter drop.

"Attention, everyone. The military has arrived in the dark universe. Whoever find this, stay safe. The shadows are growing stronger. Find a place to set up a safe base. Do not try and fight the shadows without ranged weapons. The military will dispatch rescue teams in 144 hours. Flip for more info."

"144 hours? That's six days. Guess we'll be rescued soon..." I said, flipping the page.

"Tips for survival are simple. Do not let the shadows transfer blood into yours. This will cause infection and will kill you within three days. Try using ranged weapons, and aim for the head, chest and legs. If you know someone who is infected, try and take out the infected blood with a, blood transfusion kit. Repeat, the military will dispatch rescue in 144 hours. Do not leave Yuka!"

I continued reading, if the military was here, that means they might be clearing the shadows out. After finishing reading, I quickly rushed back and woke everyone up to show them.

-Unknown-

"Huh, 144 hours. That means I'm running out of time."

Saying, walking to, Mystery Lake.

-Liepard-

"So, the military. Can't just go show ourselves. We need to do something, to delay this rescue."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Bombing..."

-Riolu-

"Are you serious?" Shinx said.

"We'll survive six days. We have all the stuff we need." Braixen replied.

"Well, if we're going to rescued in six days… We should start finding out more about this place." I told everyone.

"And by that you mean?" Shinx questioned.

"If we're getting rescued soon… We should start learning more about this place. What created it, and what sent us here." I said back, while flipping through my Hologram map.

I continued searching through the map, till I found a good location.

"How bout here?" I showed everyone.

The location was near the edge of Yuka's bounds. Leading to Yalso. It was someplace called "Lava Caves"

"You're joking right? We're not moving everything in a place of filled with lava." Shinx sounded annoyed.

"We're not, we're going to go search. I heard that place had Lava Crystals. We can use those as flares." I replied.

"Lava flares? That sounds very dangerous. In fact how do we even launch them with a flare gun?" Braixen questioned.

"I learned how, a while ago. But if we find a flare gun, we'll be set." I said.

I continued talking.

"Okay, so we need. A flare gun, about five lava crystals, beacon of some sort, emergency medkits, tools, and tons of ammo and weapons." I said, as I wrote it down.

"Once I get high grade tools, I'll be able to modify the flare gun. The Lava Crystals are very dangerous. But once fire in a flare gun, they explode into crystal shards, of glowing red. That will get anyone's attention." I continued.

We all agreed, we started preparing for a dangerous adventure. We left shortly after.

-Charmander-

"Huh, 144 hours? I'm glad." I said.

"We're finally getting rescued?" Snivy replied.

"Seems like it. Let's try and survive till then." I said.

-Military-

"Are the tanks in place?"

"Yes sir, delivered this morning."

"Let's move this along then. Get going."

-Riolu-

"Okay who will stay behind?" I told everyone.

"Huh?" Shinx replied.

"With this Pichu and Emolga, we need someone to watch over them." I said back.

"I'll stay." Houndour said.

"I guess me to." Umbreon said.

Everyone else decided to go. We got our bags and gathered food, weapons and ammo. Once we all got ready, we parted ways with our two other friends, and left. It was going to take about a day to reach the caves.

-Umbreon-

With everyone gone, besides Houndour and I, we just sat around talking.

"So, if we're getting outta here… What are you going to do, once in the real world?" He said to me.

"Not sure, before I was sent here, Espeon and I were doing something special." I replied.

"Huh, special? What were you doing?" He questioned.

"We were working on some stuff. Nothing really..." I said back.

Before I was sent here, Espeon and I were working on a deal. We were kind of in a tough spot. It wasn't much of a problem, now we're in here. But once we're out, it's going to be a problem again. I tried not to think of it much. We just continued talking about random things.

-Emolga-

I was only in my underwear, trying to wash my clothes. After drenching them. Everyone left, so it was a perfect time. I wanted to go but I decided to stay. It was warming up outside, despite it being mid month of November. Umbreon and Houndour were watching over the city, when everyone else was gone. I think they should've had more stay behind, a massive city will be hard to guard with only two guards. I would offer to help guard, but I'd rather stay in my house. It would be strange, they probably don't trust me yet, I'm just a random survivor a Riolu found. After done, I looked down and sigh.

"Hopefully no one see's me." I said.

I locked the door and got naked, to complete my clothe cleaning.

-Military-

"We got movement."

"Location, of movement?"

"Leaving Emerald City, and heading to south-west."

"Gather up Team Bravo, and meet up with them."

"Understood, standby for updates."

"...Hopefully they're the one's we're looking for..."

-Charmander-

"That walk took forever… It looked so close." Snivy said.

"I didn't realize. I thought it was closer. But finally we're here at last." I replied.

"By the way, when will this Pikachu wake up? It was about a day." He told me.

"Not sure… Hopefully soon. It wasn't meant to be this long." I said back.

After talking, we started knocking on the doors of the city.

-Umbreon-

"Who's that?" I said, hearing knocking coming from the gates.

"Don't know, go answer it." He told me.

"No, you go. What if it's something bad?" I replied back.

"What, are you scared? Fine I'll go." He said and got up.

He walked over and started pulling the gates open. We were surprised to see the Charmander and Snivy sitting there.

-Charmander-

"Sweet, I knew we'll find them here." I said excited.

-Houndour-

"Where were you two? You were gone for a long time." I said.

"I… I'm not sure where we were. It's kinda hard to say." Charmander replied.

"Let's just say, we were in a room. Blindfolded." Snivy said.

"Blindfolded? Room? Okay then, anyways come in." I replied before looking down.

"Uh, is that Pikachu?" I had a questionable face.

"Oh, we found him in a military base… He's been asleep for about a day." Charmander said to me..

"We know this Pikachu, he escaped the island with us. As I remember." I replied.

"Oh, good. Guess this isn't a stranger then. Shall we enter?" Snivy said, pushing aside me.

We all walked in. We explained what we were doing when they were gone.

"I just noticed. Why is it just you two? Oh no, don't tell me all of you died!" Charmander exclaimed.

"What? No, no. We stayed behind while all the others went to Lava Caves. They'll be back in about a day or two." I replied.

After explaining our plans, we started to relax. It was kinda nice to see them, now we're not so lonely. But I still have a question I won't ask. How did they get separated. It was deeply strange, unless they got lost.

-Riolu-

"Come on, all of you." I said climbing a mountain.

"We're not like you, you know that right?" Shinx said below.

I quickly climbed a mountain, and looked down to see lava everywhere.

"Watch out everyone! Don't fall into the inferno." I yelled below.

Everyone finally got up and saw the view. The volcano was insane. From what I learned this is, Yuka's super volcano. I scanned the insides and saw glowing ores everywhere.

"That's what we're after. Be extremely careful while collecting them. Once you pull them, move aside. Once they detach, it releases a massive steam burst. Powerful enough to knock you off." I said.

We carefully walked down the narrow pathway down. The heat became so much, I started getting lightheaded. We all split up in different paths down. I finally got to my first ore, I tried pulling it out. After pulling it out, I quickly stuck myself to the wall. The steam burst out with great heat. It worsted my lightheaded dizziness. I started regretting going down here. Looking around, everyone was gathering these ores. I walked even further down. Reaching the next one, I struggled to pull it out. The heat made my hands sweaty, as I tried pulling it out, my hands slipped. I fell off my ledge, and started falling down. I was lucky enough to catch another ledge below me.

"Riolu?!" I heard many screams.

"I'm okay! Just get out of here. We got enough!" I screamed back trying to climb up.

Everyone was scared I would fall. But after trying to get up, I finally did. Once getting up I tried to quickly climb back up to safety. Everyone else was way higher then me, and got out quickly. I was left alone trying to climb up, it was getting so hot, I thought I would pass out. The lava boiled beneath me. Waiting for something to kill. I got up halfway when I heard it, another pair of footsteps. I looked up and saw Shinx trying to reach me.

"What are you doing?! It's too dangerous! It won't support more then my weight!" I screamed.

He just continued to me. I thought he was going to get us killed. But he then reached out his hand. I wanted to keep going. But I felt the ledge giving out, I forgot the idea of doing this myself, and quickly grabbed his hand. As I did he pulled me up, I heard and felt the ledge crumbling under me. I didn't know how much Shinx could pull. He continued pulling me up to safety. Once I was on solid ground, I tackled Shinx into a hug hold.

"You saved me! When did you get so strong?!" I asked.

"I have my times… And I'm not going to lose my best friend… Come on, let's go." He said.

We walked out, me still shaken up. I never been that scared before. But everything was fine. We got what we came for. Now we're heading back. I wondered what the others at the city were doing.

-Umbreon-

"Well, I'm bored. What are we gonna do?" I questioned.

"We could play hide and seek." Charmander said.

"Really? I'm not a kid anymore." I replied.

"I want to play." A voice came from behind us.

We turned and saw the little Pichu standing there. It was about time she got up. Everyone looked at me with a smirk on their faces.

"Ugh, fine… I'm doing this because of her..." I said getting up and counting.

I can't believe this.

-Emolga-

I finished washing and drying my clothes. I finally covered myself up. I felt uncomfortable being naked that long. But the hard part is done. After dressing, I left the house. I left and saw Umbreon looking around. I was wondering what he was doing and walked up to him.

"Everything all right?" I questioned.

"I was pulled into a stupid game of Hide and Seek..." He said sounding annoyed.

I couldn't help by laugh a bit.

"Mind if I jump in?" I said.

"Find a place to hide then..."

I quickly dashed into a hiding spot. It was funny, Umbreon hates everything as far as I know. Now he's playing a game.

-Military-

"Sir, we found them."

"Affirmative. Approach slowly."

"Copy."

-Riolu-

We were walking till we heard clattering of something. We looked behind us, before we knew it we were blind. A flashbang went off. I started swinging my pipe everywhere, trying not to hit my friends. I felt something stop my pipe and kick me in the stomach. The boot he had, was extremely heavy and knocked me into the ground. I started griping my stomach, while also trying to see. The blindness finally started going away. Looking up, I saw nothing. Everyone else was standing around me.

"Are you okay? My head is killing me..." Braixen said.

"I think… Besides being kicked." I replied.

I tried getting up, once up I could barely walk. Shinx and Braixen helped me. We continued to the city at a faster speed.

-Military-

"I said, don't attack them!"

"Sorry, sir…"

"Now they're going to be on high alert."

"Try and not attack them next time..."

-Liepard-

"What are we going to do with them?" Floatzel said.

"Torture them… Make them tell us where they are..." I replied.

"Uh, are you sure?" He said back.

"Yes, now do your job!" I yelled back.

We will get information out of these two.

-Meowth-

"You're wasting your time. They gained our trust, I'm not speaking." I said.

"Uh… Yeah, what he said." Pancham replied.

"I guess we got to get rough." The Floatzel said, pulling out many tools.

-Shinx-

We saw the city in the distance. We're glad to be back. It's worrying me, who were the ones who flashed us. I kept an eye everywhere for strange things.

-Espeon-

"Riolu are you okay? You look sick." I said.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It just hurts like crazy." He replied.

"I can look at it, if you want." I replied back.

"No, it's not that bad. I'll be sure to say if it gets worst." He said.

I just continued looking straight, I wasn't sure if he was okay.

-Unknown-

"Little sis?!" I screamed.

"Please, don't..." I thought.

I can't lose the closest thing in my life. I will find my little sister. Pichu. I continued screaming into the forest, I can't think of the worst. I know she's alive, she has too.

-Pancham-

"So, do you want to suffer? We can just do this the easy way." Liepard said to me.

"Once again, I'm not saying anything…" I replied.

"Ugh, fine have it your way." She said, grabbing a sharp object.

I was scared, but I won't say anything.

-Riolu-

We made it back to the city, after seven hours. We entered and I fell. It was at that moment, I noticed the pool of blood pouring from my pant leg. I pulled my pant leg up, and showed about a gallon of blood. I didn't feel anything back there, it was probably the pain from the kick. The blood was still slightly bleeding. I wasn't sure how I didn't die. Everyone looked at it, disgusted. Trying to wipe the blood, I saw a four inch cut. It was from my back knee, all the way up to my butt. The cut looked awful, Shinx then quickly lifted me and dragged me to a nearby building. He laid me on a table, and opened his pack. He pulled out all kinds of medicines. He pulled my pants off and started cleaning the blood. I felt so embarrassed, only in my underwear, letting my best friend fix my leg.

-Shinx-

There was blood everywhere, I tried my best cleaning and stitching up the wound. It was disgusting. I never seen this much blood before. Riolu was clearly in pain, it wasn't helping my work. After many minutes later, I finished.

-Riolu-

I couldn't get up, the blood lost made me extremely weak. I just laid on my stomach, the feeling of warm blood all over my leg. I just continued laying there. Shinx got up and left for a quick second, he brought back some stuff I dropped. My bag and the crystals. I couldn't move, he dropped a blanket over me, to keep me warm.

"I'll be right outside… If you need me just call. Don't try and get up, just rest." He said to me.

I was groggy but was able to replied.

"O… Okay. Thanks..."

He smiled and left. I was just laying there, pain up and down my leg. After a bit, I went into sleep.

-Shinx-

"So, how is he?" Braixen said.

"He might be fine. I tried my best." I replied.

"That's good. Hopefully he gets better quick." Umbreon said.

"I wouldn't be so sure. He lost a ton of blood, and we didn't notice." I said back.

"Just don't think much of it. If the blood stopped, I'm pretty sure he'll be okay." Braixen replied.

-Pikachu-

I woke up, I felt no pain. Getting up, I noticed my infected area was cleared. The skin started to heal, my blood returned to it's red color. Trying to remember, I then remembered, the Charmander. He was the one who saved me. I just sat down, waiting to regain my head.

-Shinx-

"So, what next?" I said.

"Well, we should just sit back. That volcano was scary." Braixen said.

"If you want… But we shouldn't take too long." I replied.

I was still worried about Riolu, I didn't know how much blood he lost. And we didn't noticed till we got back. That was about seven hours of bleeding. I'm still surprised he lived this long, all the stuff he's been through. All that blood he lost, at lease I know he won't die without a fight. We just let him sleep. Before we knew it, night arrived. It was a peaceful night, it was just like back in the real world. Laying on the soft grass, on a hill. Staring up at the star filled night sky. I noticed there wasn't any trouble for a couple of weeks. No shadows trying to kill us, nothing. It was nice, but still strange. I hope Riolu gets better soon.

-Unknown-

"New moon."

"Uh-huh. What are we even looking for?"

"Not sure yet, but I know where to go. But it's too dark to travel. Let's set up camp."

"Sure, whatever."

-Riolu-

I awoken. It was pitch black outside, I was still laying there still partly naked. I was able to get up just enough to walk. Trying to bend my leg to not rip the stitches. I made my way to the window and looked out, it was night. The night sky was clear, just stars everywhere, no moon. It must've been three in the morning. Making my way back to the bed, I picked up my bag and took out some spare shorts. After dressing, I headed outside for a minute. The warm air was strange. But felt good in a way, I just walked around a bit, trying to ease the pain.

-Meowth-

"What did we even do? I don't know you." I said.

"If your friend's with Team Star, then your our enemy." Floatzel replied.

"You're going to pay for this!" Pancham yelled.

"I'm I? What are you gonna do? You're tied to a chair. These ropes are unbreakable, now stop asking stupid questions." He said to us.

He pulled out some sharp objects, he walked up to me. He then grabbed my hand, and slammed it onto a table next to me. Next thing I knew, he forced the sharp knife like object into my hand. It went completely through, I screamed in agony, he let go and I quickly tried pulling it out of my hand. The pain was so intense, I was seeing red in my vision. I finally got it out and tried throwing it at him. It missed, he quickly turned back around. He punched me in the face with great force. I quickly fainted after that.

-Riolu-

I finished my short walk around town. Before entering the house, I heard something. Quickly looking around, it was coming from a house next to me. With my injured leg, I was scared walking into the house. But I did it anyways. Thankfully it was only Emolga. He heard me come in and turned around.

"What are you doing up?" He questioned.

"I just needed a walk..." I replied.

"What are you doing?" I added.

"Oh, I couldn't sleep. I was trying to find something in my bag." He said.

"Oh, okay. Well anyways, I'm going to get some sleep. You should too." I replied.

After leaving, I felt off. Nighttime was creepy, mostly during November and December. The nights just seems eerie. I shook it off, and just headed back to sleep.

-Pancham-

"Come on! Wake up!" I screamed at Meowth.

We were locked in a small room. It was awful, I just wanted to go back home. I never knew we would get tortured. Trying to bandage his wound, he started moving.

"Hello?!" I said, concerned.

After bandaging his wound, I just sat in a corner. This was officially the worst day ever.

-Unknown-

I fired shots into the darkness. Trying to fend off the shadows chasing me. I been trying to reach Emerald City for a week now. I didn't realize how far Mystery Lake and Emerald City were apart from each others. Only if I had my bike. I continued running through the dark forest, fire shots behind me. We will be reunited again.

-Umbreon-

Something shook me awake. Looking up I saw Espeon.

"Ugh… What?" I replied still asleep.

"Didn't you hear that?" She replied.

"Hear what…?" I said.

"I think I heard gunfire." She said shaken up.

"Gunfire, really? Just go back to sleep, it's nothing." I said.

She must've just mistaken it for something else. I didn't hear anything like that. I just went back to sleep without thinking much more of it.

-Military-

"We located Team Vortex."

"Where?"

"Someplace called, Midnight Island."

"Good… Bring your team and finish them, they caused this region enough problems."

"Yes sir."

-Riolu-

I woke up, feeling the warm sun on me. Getting up, my leg was still sore. The stitches just make it feel much more uncomfortable. The blood on my leg dried up, witch cause a slight rash.

"Just perfect." I thought.

Continuing getting up, I grabbed my blood soaked pants. I pulled out some water from my bag, and a rag. Pouring some on the rag, I cleaned my leg of all blood. Carefully trying not to damage Shinx's badly done stitches.

"I really need to teach him how to stitch properly." I laughed a bit.

After doing all my stuff, I finally left the house. It was around the afternoon. I saw everyone just doing their own things. Shinx saw me and flagged me down. I slowly walked up to him, still hurting from my leg.

"You slept a while. How's your leg?" He said.

"Better then before, still hurts." I replied.

"Just take it easy. I don't want to carry you if your leg gives out." He said back.

I just nodded and headed off. I took it slow for today, just sitting and chatting with everyone else. Umbreon pulled out a strange device and showed us.

"Well, here it is." Umbreon said.

"What is it?" Braixen replied.

"This here, is a device that upgrades a hologram map." Espeon said.

I perked up, it was a microchip. It had a strange blue pulse to it.

"Riolu?" Umbreon said to me.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"Because your the only one who have's a Hologram Map, want to try it?" He told me.

"Is it safe? Because I don't want it to blow up… Or even corrupt my map." I said back.

"Yes it's safe. Here give me your map." Espeon said.

After giving them my map, they inserted it into my map. After doing so, the map went blank. After a few seconds the text said Updating appeared. Once it was done, the map rebooted. When it loaded back up, I noticed there was more options to it. Umbreon handed me it back and I tried it. I read the options in my head.

"Caves, nearby, dangers, info plus, track."

Picking caves, it made an underground map of all cave systems below me. Picking nearby it showed the closest landmark. Dangers allowed me to see how dangerous an area is. Info plus just gave me more information about locations. And Track allowed me to set way points.

"Wow, this is pretty awesome. How long did it take for you two to make this?" I questioned.

"About a week." Umbreon replied.

I was surprised it only took a week. But knowing them they get stuff done extremely quick. I made sure to keep my map in a safe place. We continued talking for a bit.

-Unknown-

It was quite the run, but I made it. I saw the city in the distance. These shadows were still chasing me. I couldn't keep running for long. My lungs burned, at lease running ten miles each day is finally paying off. I heard them growl and bite behind me. I don't know how long till I give out. Almost there.

-Meowth-

I woke up midday, I couldn't feel my hand. Getting up the slight burning feeling struck me. Looking around, I was alone. The room was completely empty besides me. It took a second, but I noticed a small bag in the corner. Opening it, I found small amounts of antiseptic, painkillers and bandages. I had no medical training with these things. But I tried my best. I wondered where Pancham went. Maybe they took him, to do whatever. Hopefully he's okay.

-Riolu-

Despite his weak knowledge, I let Shinx check my leg.

"Couldn't you check it yourself? Being the master medic." He told me.

"I can't see it, and I can't stitch it. Will you be kind enough to replace the stitches?" I asked.

"Uh, I'll try." He replied.

Shinx started taking out the stitches, it didn't feel painful. But still a slight pinch. He replied my stitches, less sloppy this time. After he finished, I putted my shorts back on.

"Uh, thanks. At lease your stitching skill improved. Anyways let's head out with the others.

We walked out and joined the others.

-Pikachu-

The skin was completely healed just about. That's the last time I'll go without a weapon. I own that Charmander big time. If he threw it three seconds later, I wouldn't survive. And now I'll protect this group. They saved me, that Charmander saved me. But he's apart of this group. Protecting them will be my main objective.

-Meowth-

The pain finally subsided. This team was dangerous. And it seems like they don't like the group we're in. I'll find a way out, and make them suffer.

-Tepig-

I've been walking, so long. No sign of life. I lost my friend Snivy and everyone else. It was hard. I wanted to try and find them. I left the island a while ago, I'm going to start searching the cities.

-Liepard-

"We looted the nearby areas. We found a couple of small mines." Floatzel said to me.

"Good, we're going to leave this island soon. I feel like the Military found us." I replied.

"Any status on those two?" I added.

"Not yet, they're stubborn." Floatzel said.

"Try harder. Did you try electrocution?" I replied.

"Uh, that's kinda hardcore. In fact, we can't kill them." He said to me.

"Don't give them a load full. Just shocks." I said.

"Uh, okay." He said entering a room.

-Emolga-

Continuing to scavenging around outside, I just looked for some stuff. After a bit of searching I gave up, only finding some small amount of iron. Heading back into the city, I looked back and saw flashing lights. It caught my eyes, I slowly made my way to the glinting item.

-Poochyena-

I was next to the door, I saw the Emolga walk in and quickly walked out. It was strange, I got up and headed over to him.

"Hey, where are you going?" I questioned.

"Do you see that?" He said.

"See what?" I asked.

The Emolga looked back at the mountain.

"Huh? It's not there anymore? Uh, I saw glittering in the mountains." He replied.

"Strange. But you shouldn't go alone. Come on let's go inside." I said.

We walked back inside.

-Riolu-

The sun started setting. After a bit, I heard gunshots. I grew worried and looked over the gates. In the deepness of the woods, I saw a Raichu running. Firing what looked like an Agram 2000. Behind him were like ten shadows of dead survivors. I grabbed the SR-25, and started firing at the shadows. I yelled for some help, Shinx, Houndour and Poochyena grabbed a weapon and started firing. While the rest opened the gate for this survivor to enter. After shooting the last one in the head, we relaxed and headed down. The Raichu, clearly out of breath, just sat there.

"What just happened?!" Umbreon said.

"We finished off the shadows." I replied.

"Uh, where did the Raichu come from?" Braixen asked.

"Not sure. But he brought some friends..." Shinx said.

The Raichu was trying to caught some air. It seemed like he ran for like a week. We looked around for any other shadows lurking around. It was only those ten, it was pretty crazy. Never seen that much before. Everyone tried getting some stuff for the Raichu.

-Meowth-

I continued looking around the room, it only had some random junk. Moving them around, I noticed a small gate. The small vent looked big enough for me to crawl in it. Trying to prey it open, I heard the door unlock. I quickly pulled the boxes back in place, and laid back down. Pretending to be asleep still. I peaked a tiny bit, I saw the Floatzel throwing Pancham back in. He slammed the door and locked it, I then got up.

"What did they do to you?" I asked.

"They asked me questions..." He replied.

"Well guess what." I said.

"What?" He told me.

I showed him the vent. After talking, we started preying it open. We finally got it open, I squeezed my way through.

-Riolu-

"Are you better now?" I asked.

"I… I think so..." The Raichu replied.

"Good, now where did you come from?" Shinx asked.

"I came from Mystery Lake." He said.

"Mystery Lake? That's pretty far from here. You ran all this way?" I replied.

"Yes. Pretty much." He said.

After a bit, Emolga and Pichu walked out. Once Raichu saw the Pichu his eyes went huge.

"Little sis?! You're alive!" He said, quickly getting up and running to her.

"Brother!" She screamed.

They hugged for what felt like forever.

"Well… I guess we found the caretaker." I said.

Both of them just stood there, hugging for minutes. Finally they departed and Raichu looked at us. And back at her.

"Did they help you?" He asked.

"Yes, that Riolu over there. He's very nice, I was hiding in a house when he found me." She said.

The Raichu got up and walked over to me. He then gave me a very strong hug.

"Ow! Careful!" I said.

"Thank you so much, she means everything to me!" He said, hugging tighter.

He let me go, making me fall to the ground. I got up and saw them. They seemed so happy together. At lease there's happiness in a place like this. At lease I now know, she wasn't alone or the one taking care of her died. We gave the Raichu some food and water, and just had a normal night...


	15. Chapter 15: Waters Of Healing

The night was quiet. Too quiet. The military will send the rescue choppers in 100 hours. Just a couple more days. I was just looking up at the sky, trying to think what we'll do. We just found another survivor, it was getting dangerous. A group this big, nothing good can come of it. I still remember the sight of that Litleo. I never want anyone to suffer that way again. Thinking these, I just continued looking up.

-Pikachu-

It was about nine. Most of us already fell asleep. But I couldn't sleep, I just kept thinking, what would happen if that Charmander didn't help me. It kept me up, I want to show how much he saved me. But I don't know how to show it, I guess I'll have to wait.

-Meowth-

I crawled through the vents. Trying not to make noise, these vents were old. Making loud clanking noises, it wasn't helping me. Finally crawling over an opening, I looked in, and it was completely empty. Slowly removing the vent, I jumped in. The room was completely dark, there wasn't any light switch. I just started feeling around, trying to find anything. After a bit, I gripped a flashlight. Turning it on, it was one of those flood lights. The light was so bright, I could clearly blind anyone for a good minute. But the battery was dying, the light was dim. I used the small amount of light to look around, it wasn't much help. But I found a butterfly knife, and some vests. It took a second to put it on, I grabbed the other vest for Pancham. Trying to open the front door, it was locked. It wouldn't be that easy, I started pulling boxes to the vent opening. Once it was high enough, I climbed and crawled back through the vents.

-Umbreon-

I woke up in a cold sweat. Espeon was wrapped around me. Slowly removing her and getting up, I had an uneasy feeling. Walking outside after getting dressed, the air seemed different. The air seemed heavier then normal. I heard a screeching noise outside, I was caught off guard. It scared me a lot. I quickly equipped my small handgun, and walked outside the gates. Walking outside, it was strange. Taking a few more steps, I was hit by something. The blow sent me flying to the ground. Looking up and around, nothing was around. After getting up, I saw a massive shadow figure. I couldn't make out what it was before. What I did noticed, the shadow had a sword. It quickly ran to me, it kicked me and sent me flying again. Hitting a rock wall, I was dazed. The last thing I noticed, the shadow had plunged the sword in my stomach. I saw my insides get ripped out, my vision twisted and blurred. I blacked out. Next thing I knew, I shot up. It was just a nightmare. It seemed so real, I was breathing insanely fast. I thought I wound pass out from breathing so quickly. The loud breathing I made, and jerking up so fast woke Espeon up.

"Are you alright?" She said concerned.

I tried playing it off, but I was so shaken up.

"It… It was nothing… Just had a nightmare..." I said.

"Must've been bad then. You sound like your dying. Are you sure?" She still sound concerned.

"Yes… I, need some air. I'll be back." I said getting up.

I quickly dressed and walked outside. That dream seemed so real, and I felt everything. I was terrified going back to sleep now.

-Meowth-

"Now we're geared. Now what?" Pancham told me.

"We get revenge. We need to make sure they won't follow us." I replied.

Heading back into the vents, we started making our way through the vent system.

-Shinx-

Night watch wasn't that bad. At lease it's mostly peaceful and quiet. Continuing to watch, I kept thinking. That Raichu, where did he come from. He brought a lot of those shadows to us. Hopefully there isn't more just waiting for the right moment. I'll be so happy when we leave this place.

-Riolu-

About ten hours passed. Day started rising, it was nice. Raiding my backpack, I took out the crystals. We only needed a flare gun now. We looked all over the city, no flare gun in sight. There are watchtowers near Mount Ruby. But that was pretty far away. Could try Lush Forest. That had some watchtowers. Survival shops may have flare guns also. I kept thinking what to do, it was getting brighter out. I wanted to head alone, I grabbed some gear and left the city. It wasn't a good idea leaving alone, but I wanted to be alone. I headed off to Lush Forest, in hope to find a flare gun.

-Shinx-

The sun started rising. Riolu left not long ago. I wanted to go with him, but he acted strange. I decided to trail him. With his leg still healing, he won't be able to defend himself. I packed some stuff and started tailing him. Making sure to stay out of sight.

-Riolu-

I quickly made my way to the forest. This place had healing waters, or that's what it says. Drinking this water, it quickly heals damaged parts of your body. If so, I'm going to grab some. I had a strange feeling though. I thought I was being followed, but every time I look back, nothing. I guess it's this place playing tricks on me. I continued making my way to the forest.

-Umbreon-

"You still look pale…" Espeon told me.

"I'm okay, can we just… Get pass this?" I replied.

"Fine, fine." She said.

We were working on some new projects. It was becoming tough. I couldn't work like this, once I got done. I went for a walk.

-Shinx-

It was getting hard to follow him. I had to push pass trees and everything, while avoiding making noise. After thirty minutes, we came to a stop. We got to our destination. The forest looked beautiful, the trees and grass were so green. And it had a glittering lake with a waterfall. I wasn't paying much attention and smacked my face off a branch. Holding it in pain, I heard something. Looking up, I saw Riolu making him way to the lake.

-Riolu-

"Well. The water does look different. It looks foggy. Same picture on my Hologram Map." I thought.

"So, any body part exposed to this water… Will heal it at insane speed, with full percent success." I added.

I didn't think much, I ditched the idea of grabbed a canteen full of it. I decided to get undress and hop in.

-Shinx-

I saw Riolu take off all his clothes. After averting my eyes long enough, I heard him jump in. I kept trying to watch over him. If this magical water does work, I still think this is fake. I'll be surprised. If it does work, I'm heading back here and grabbing tons of it.

-Riolu-

The water felt so nice. Warm yet calming. I never been here back in the real world. Once I get back, I'm going here every week. I felt the water working, looking back on my leg, the cut slowly connected to the other side. Even after my cut heal, I stood there for a bit longer. Hadn't felt a nice bath in months.

-Military-

"I got word, Team Vortex took some hostages."

"So you got a location?"

"Yes, Mystery Island. In some kind of base."

"Good, let's get going."

-Meowth-

"Duck down!" I whispered.

Hiding behind some boxes, after four armored members of vortex walked pass. We were almost out, the door was right in front of us. But guarded by two other guards.

"What are we gonna do with them?" Pancham whispered to me.

"Let me deal with them." I replied.

While they turned, I quickly ran to a wall closer to them. Peeking over they were still chatting. They had pretty deadly weapons, I would not want to alert them. I quietly ran into a room next to me. The room had two doors, the other door would lead me right next to them. Slowly opening the door and peeking, I was barely behind them. Trying to open the door as quiet as I can, something dropped. It made a loud noise, looking down I saw a trip wire. After seeing this, I didn't think much when I burst open the door knocking one down. The other one hit me with the butt of the gun, he started firing at me. Trying to dodge, I was unsuccessful. I was shot twice in the foot and once in the leg. I landed hard on the floor, he walked up and aiming right at my head. Till I saw Pancham jump on him and knocked him out with a brick. He helped me up and he tried running. We escaped but they weren't far behind. We continued running at my speed through the forested area.

-Riolu-

After ten more minutes, I finally got out and dried off. I got some of the water in case we get hurt. After drying off, I got dressed again and headed back. Feeling so much better my leg was healed.

-Shinx-

Getting tried, I finally saw Riolu leave. I packed up and started following him back.

-Raichu-

"Where are you going?" Pichu said to me.

"I'm just going out for a bit. Don't worry I'll be back." I replied.

"Can I come?" She said.

"Uh, that doesn't sound like a good idea." I said back.

"But I don't want to be alone again..." She said looking up to me.

I sighed and put her jacket on.

"Okay… Just stay close to me. Okay?" I told her.

"Okay!" She said sounding happy.

We walked outside the city, we started headed into the forest.

-Pikachu-

While adventuring outside, thinking what to give Charamdner for saving me. I tripped over a big looking blue object. Looking back, the blue object was stuck in the ground. It took my concern and I tried digging it out. After digging around the stone, I pulled it out. My eyes sparkled, it was a beautiful diamond. I wondered how it was on surface, but I found a gift for Charmander now. I headed back with it in hand.

-Pancham-

"Come on, move it!" I screamed at Meowth.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I would if I didn't have a leg full of bullets!" He screamed back.

We couldn't outrun them, we found a small cave nearby. We quickly ran and hid in there.

-Shinx-

I sighed deeply. Riolu was stopping at everything possible. It grew boring quickly. But after an extra hour, we got back to the city.

-Riolu-

I reached the city, water in hand. I got enough for many uses. Once entering it, I found Houndour and Umbreon. Giving them some of the water, their scars healed quickly. There was still enough water for six uses, I saved it just in case. Guess we found a way to instant heal. I just sat down and relaxed the rest of the day...


	16. Chapter 16: Snowflake Tower

I was relaxing, just seeing what everyone was doing. Those waters will help us, it could even help gunshot wounds. It wasn't hard to get either. Before I knew it, the sky darken and the sun set. Once the darkness hit the bottle, it glowed a pretty blue. I just headed to bed early.

-Shinx-

Like I said, if those waters worked. I'm heading back there, even know it's getting dark, I went anyways. I grabbed many bottles and headed to Lush Forest.

-Meowth-

We waited, for a while. We didn't hear much, I thought it was finally safe. I had Pancham remove the bullets in my leg and foot. It was extremely painful, but got through it. After wrapping what we could around my leg and foot, we continued our way off the island.

-Shinx-

Walking to the lake, the sun fell. Leaving me in complete darkness. I had a small light, flicking on the light, I continued on my way. After a little bit, I finally reached it again. The water glowed brightly in the night. Almost looking like a beacon. Reaching my hand in the water, it felt strangely good. No wonder why Riolu loved it so much. The water on my hands, glowed a faint blue before vanishing. I decided to do what Riolu did, I got undressed and jumped in. The glowing waters completely engulfed my body. I stayed there for a bit.

-Pikachu-

I brought the diamond with me. I planned on giving it to him tomorrow.

-Raichu-

We were heading back, nighttime risen completely. It was kinda scary, Pichu looked uneasy. But I picked her up and walked with her in my hands. The city was in the distance, we were almost there.

-Meowth-

We headed in the way Emerald City was, we finally got off that island. Now we're searching for the others. While we walked, something caught our eyes.

-Shinx-

Finally after what felt like hours, I got out. I felt so refreshed, after filling the bottles I headed back. But on my way, I got turned around. I ended up going south, then west. I continued walking the wrong way. After a couple of minutes walking, I found a strange little house. Concerned of how I got turned around hit me. When walking up to the house, I saw a ATV. It had fire red paint and looked perfect. And for some reason, it had the keys in it. My luck was amazing. I never drove since high school. It may take time for me to warm up again, but I found a quick way to transport around. I sat down and turned the keys. The ATV burst to life, it felt so smooth. No problems detected at all. Pulling out, I burnt rubber making it back to the city.

-Riolu-

I woke up and saw a small amount of light shining in.

"Strange, already morning?" I thought.

I just fell asleep about three hours ago. And that was ten-o-clock. I knew it wasn't sunlight, I got up to check it out. Leaving the house, I saw the light coming from the gates. Getting closer I started hearing a motor engine. Growing suspicious what was making that sound, I grabbed a weapon and slowly opened the gate. As the gates opened, there was a ATV outside.

"What in the?" I quietly said.

Looking in it, I saw the healing water I grabbed. It was strange. Continuing to look over it, I heard bushes and movement. Pointing the weapon over at the movement, Shinx walked out. I was confused and lowered the weapon. He saw me and ran over.

"Look at I found." He said.

"You found this? Where did you go off too?" I replied.

"Oh, I went over to Lush Forest. Grabbed some healing water. I found the ATV after getting turned around." He said to me.

"Why were you in the forest?" I questioned.

"Uh, bathroom. Anyways, we have transport now. Two seats." He replied.

Now we have a vehicle. I wonder how we're going to get gas for it. It had a full tank right now, we can use this to get places faster. That's good. We pulled the ATV into the city and parked it next to the doors.

-Meowth-

"It's shiny, I want it..." I said.

"What is it?" Pancham replied.

"Something special" I said, quickly picking it up.

I didn't show Pancham what it was, we just continued heading to Emerald City.

-Espeon-

"Umbreon…? Are you awake?" I said to him.

"Ugh, what?" He said.

"Tomorrow is the first day of December." I replied.

"Okay…?" He said.

"That means Christmas is almost here." I said to him.

"So, you want to do something special?" He said back.

"I had some stuff in mind… Well goodnight!" I said.

After saying that, I squeezed up to Umbreon and fell asleep.

-Riolu-

"So, now we have this. What are we going to do with this?" I said.

"Well, I was thinking. With this we could do some cool stuff. I'm so going to buy one of these when we get back." He replied.

"And by cool, you mean?" I asked.

"Off roading of course!" He said.

I thought it would be nice. I said we'll do it later, and went to sleep.

-Shinx-

It was nice having transport. Now we don't need to walk everywhere, we just needed gas for it. And being Yuka, cities are spread apart. Gas stations were hard to come by, we could start draining the Emerald City gas supplies. We just needed a siphon to suck the fuel out. I started watch guard.

-Liepard-

"Everyone is in place." Floatzel said.

"Got the equipment?" I replied.

"Yes, we'll wait here for further orders." He said.

-Unknown-

"I'm ready. Is everyone else ready?"

Everyone agreed and started heading out.

-Riolu-

Nighttime fell and day showed. Getting up and walking outside, I saw Shinx tending to his new ATV. I rolled my eyes and walked up to him.

"You're really in love with that thing huh?" I said.

"This is my first vehicle, so yeah." He replied.

He continued washing off the quad. It was kinda weird, I never saw Shinx fall in love with anything like this. Besides our teacher in high school. I slowly walked away and wanted to see what the others were doing.

-Charmander-

I was doing my stuff, then I saw Piakchu. He walked up to me, hands behind his back. I wondered what he was doing.

"Charmander." He said to me.

"Pikachu?" I replied.

"Can you close your eyes, and hold your hands out?" He told me.

"Uh, okay." I slowly replied, holding my hands and closing my eyes.

I felt something heavy in my hands. It felt like it weigh a good forty pounds.

"Okay, open your eyes." I heard.

As I did, I looked down and saw a shiny diamond. The diamond didn't look normal, it looked different. It was crystal clean. The shine it gave with the sun, made it look beautiful. My eyes lit up.

"Whoa… What's this for?" I said.

"It took a little searching. But I found something to repay you. You know, for saving me." He said to me.

"This is pretty awesome… Thanks, I'll make sure to keep it safe." I said, carefully putting it in my bag.

After that he walked away. I didn't need a reward, just trying to save lives. I continued working on my small project.

-Pikachu-

That didn't go that bad. I was never good at conversation. It was kind of crazy, giving a diamond away like that. But he did save me, so it didn't bother me much.. Maybe I'll find a diamond of my own. One day.

-Shinx-

I finished cleaning the ATV. After finishing, I looked for Riolu, to see if he want's to come with me.

-Riolu-

I was in the nearby shop, seeing if I could find anything. Till I heard Shinx enter. Once he entered he said if I wanted to head out with him.

"Got nothing better to do… Where are we going?" I asked.

"Just going to take it out for a bit. See how nice it goes." He replied.

"Okay, let's go then." I said.

We walked outside and sat on the ATV. Shinx started it up and we drove into the forest. It was pretty nice, The ATV was so smooth, it's pretty nice. It worked perfectly for it being abandoned, possible. I wondered where he even found it. I hadn't seen any vehicles since we entered this place. Shinx was racing through trails and stuff. I was trying to hold on, when he stopped out of nowhere. I nearly flew off with the sudden stop.

"Warning next time?" I said.

Looking around, I found that we were at Snowflake City.

"Uh, why are we here? How'd we get here within three minutes?" I told him?

"Look" He simply said.

I looked around. Nothing seemed different.

"There isn't anything here." I replied.

Shinx sighed and pointed the way.

"Over there..." He said annoyed.

He pointed in the direction of a place called Snowflake Tower.

"What about it? The tower looks normal..." I replied.

"Well, last night. I got turned around and headed here, this is where I found the ATV. But last night, I saw the tower light up." He said.

"It is a light tower." I said back.

"No, this light was different. It was coming from the windows and stuff. It was like red also." He said.

I got concerned, knowing what's in here. I thought he was lying. But he convinced me to explore it with him tonight. It was stupid, but we're armed. I guess it wouldn't be much. Tonight we'll be exploring Snowflake Tower. After that we jumped back on and went back to our city.

-Meowth-

"We're almost there… I know your tried, but we need to keep going." I said.

"Do you think they're following us?" Pancham said.

"Not sure. Hopefully not. Let's hope not, if they find us at the city. We'll be ready I'm pretty sure." I replied.

"Yeah… How much longer though?" He questioned.

"About two more days." I told him.

We continued walking to the city. Trying to get there quickly.

-Riolu-

Nighttime fell quickly, we were getting ready, It was pretty bright out. The moon was out, we were just about to leave, till Emolga saw us.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Just out for a bit." I replied.

"At night? Doesn't that sound dangerous?" He said back.

"We won't be gone for long, just don't worry about it." Shinx said.

"Okay… Uh, be safe I guess..." He replied.

We got on the ATV and went to Snowflake City.

-Emolga-

Of course, those two were up to something. I knew where they were heading, and I'll follow them. I grabbed some stuff and ran after a speeding vehicle.

-Riolu-

Minutes later, we arrived. Once we got off, we grabbed our stuff and started heading in. The building looked pretty intact. It had about seven floors. We started from the bottom and slowly made our way to the top. We only had small lanterns guiding our ways. Every step made the floor creek, it felt like I was in a horror movie. We continued searching the first floor. After checking around, we only found a few scrapes of ammo and rotten food. I wasn't sure why we even looted this place. We had everything at the city, but I guess everything is useful. Making our way up to the second floor, it was some creepy looking room. It had completely nothing in it. We just made our way to the third floor. This is where it got weird, there were these creepy looking paintings. This place wasn't normal, it just got more disturbing. That's when we heard it. The door slowly opening from the first floor...


	17. Chapter 17: Winter's Coming

"Hello?!" I yelled downstairs.

"What are you doing?" Shinx questioned me.

"Gonna see what opened the door." I replied.

"Wha- are you crazy?!" Shinx gripped my arm.

"I'll be fine. If it's a shadow, I brought protection." I said, showing him my 9mm.

"Ugh, okay… Just get back here after checking okay?" He said.

"Okay, okay. I'll be back in a minute." I said, walking down the stairs.

As I crept downstairs, I finally reached the first floor. Looking through the stair guards, the door was wide open. Rain gently falling. Trying to look around, I noticed the slight movement of something. My eyes tried seeing through the darkness. Once it was out of view, I got worried. I didn't want it to sneak up on me, turning on my small lantern. I started scanning the area, it was completely empty. Growing more worried, I quickly went back upstairs. Shinx was sitting around, waiting on me.

"Uh, nothing was there… But I swear, I saw something." I said to him.

"Saw something? Maybe this wasn't a good idea..." He replied.

"Let's keep continuing up. Maybe something is at the top." I said.

Shinx shivered at me saying that. He looked terrified, it was pretty weird. Shinx saw real things, and didn't show any fear. But he started freaking out because this.

"Uh, Shinx. Are you scared of ghosts?" I asked.

"Huh?! N- no!, psst. I'm okay, let's go!" He shakily replied.

"Uh-huh… Well… Let's go." I slowly replied.

We walked up the stairs. Shinx trembling all the way up. It looked like he was freezing, it was kinda hard to look at. He looked like a scared little kid, but we finally made it up three floors. The sixth floor had many boxes and stuff. It was pretty interesting, maybe it had some supplies. We started searching each box. I wasn't finding much but Shinx gasped and called me over.

"What? Did you find something?" I questioned.

"Check this out..." He said quietly.

I looked in and saw a little box. It was red with rubies on it. With one diamond as a lock.

"Looks like a jewelry box." I said.

"I want it… What's in it, who knows? Haha" He snickered.

"All yours, looks abandon anyways." I replied.

"I need a key though. Maybe it's around here somewhere." He said to me.

"You do that. I'm going to continue searching the other boxes..." I told him.

I wasn't sure why he was so interesting in that box. Never knew he had a girly side. I continued searching the boxes, till I got a feeling of dread. I started sweating due to the feeling, it was disturbing me. I couldn't take it anymore and started looking around. The room was empty besides me and Shinx. I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Quickly finishing the other boxes, only finding simple useless stuff. I heard Shinx yell. I jumped and asked him.

"What?!" I said running up to him.

"I found a key!" He screamed.

"Why are you so excited?! Stop screaming." I told him.

One thing I hated about Shinx. He always overreacted about everything. Every. Thing. It didn't really bother me anymore. He jumped around and I tried calming him down.

"Dude, stop acting like a fan girl… Just open your girly box." I told him.

"I'll save it for later! I want to guess a bit. Maybe filled with gems!" He said.

I rolled my eyes and headed to the last floor. Shinx looked disappointed because I left.

"Hey, come on… Not cool." He said, following behind me.

The seventh floor. It was petrifying. The walls were red, it looked like blood. There were one single chair. It was terrifying, once we shook the feeling. We quickly ran downstairs. Not wanting to know what was up there, there wasn't anything but that chair. Running down, complete darkness. I ran into something hard. I fell down the last three floors. The pain was so intense, Shinx walked down. Trying to find out what I ran into. I was laying on top of whatever I hit. Quickly getting up, I shined the light on it. Too my annoyance it was Emolga. I knew I felt watched somehow.

"What are you doing here?! I said stay back at the city!" I yelled at him.

He was unresponsive for a bit. That blow may had knocked him out. Not only landing on him.

"Uh, is he okay?" Shinx replied.

"No idea. I knew I felt uneasy. Stupid Emolga, come on, let's pull him outside." I said.

We dragged him outside. Using a bottle to grab some water, I poured the icy cold water on him. He shot up after the first drop.

"Cold! So cold!" He screamed.

"There, better now?" I questioned.

"I guess, I'm hurting and freezing now!" He said back.

"Didn't I say stay at the city?" I said.

"Yeah… But I wanted to come." He said.

I sighed.

"We told you, we'll be back soon..." I told him.

"Back soon? You've been gone for five hours." He said.

"Five hours?! We've been gone that long?! Didn't we arrive here about an hour ago?" Shinx questioned me.

"We probably forgot time. But I know it wasn't that long." I said back.

We continued talking a bit more, after agreeing to head back. We all squeezed onto the ATV. Shinx launched out of the city and back to ours. It was pretty strange, what was with that room. Maybe it was a mess up joke. But after seeing what this universe had, I don't believe that much. Hopefully it was just someone trying to scare whoever walked there. Shinx continued driving back to the city.

-Umbreon-

I was awoken once again by Espeon.

"It's the first!" She screamed jumping on me.

"Ugh..." I said groggy.

"Why now? Go to sleep. I'm too tried to do anything." I added.

"Twenty five days! It's the most romantic month of the year!" She continued yelling in my face.

"Isn't the most romantic day, valentines day?" I questioned, trying to go back to sleep.

"Second…?" She said confused.

"Guess your right. Just go back to sleep, we'll do something in the morning." I said, closing my eyes.

Espeon started to whine. But after annoying her, she gave up. She just cuddled up to me. I was getting annoyed of her waking me up.

-Meowth-

"I see it! We're just about there!" I said.

"Thanks goodness… My feet are killing me." Pancham replied.

We made our way to the city. We were so happy, finally finding something. Hopefully that's where we find our new friends.

-Military-

"Got the helicopters working? We need those very soon."

"Yes, we just finished the last one. We're ready for the rescue."

"Affirmative. Gather each team and wait. Just a few more days."

-Riolu-

We made it back to the city. As we pulled up and parked, I saw two figures in the forest.

"Hold up." I said.

As they got closer, I noticed they were Meowth and Pancham. My eyes widen and I got off and ran up to them. They saw me also, it was so nice to see them again.

"There you are! Where did you go off too?" I yelled, running over to them.

"Whoa happened to you?!" Looking at Meowth.

"I was shot by that Team Vortex..." He replied.

"We were captured by Team Vortex… And tortured, but we manged to escape..." Pancham said.

"Are you okay?! Let me help." I said grabbing the healing water.

Meowth sat down and I grabbed his leg. His foot and leg was shot pretty badly. Pouring some of the water on him, he held back screaming. Back shortly after, his wounds quickly healed. He was surprised and bewilder of what happened.

"How'd you do that?" Pancham said.

"This water is magical for some reason. I got it at Lush Forest." I said.

"That's pretty awesome..." Pancham replied.

After fixing Meowth's injuries, we quickly rushed them in. The city was dead, everyone was sleeping. It was about two am. Maybe best to wait till morning for them to see these two. We showed them a place to sleep. After that we headed to our own places. We fell asleep after a little talk.

-Tepig-

I was so tried. I could barely keep my eyes open. I couldn't keep this up much longer. After finding a small cave opening, I fell asleep.

-Poochyena-

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah, what do you say?" Braixen said.

"I guess… Well, get ready." I replied.

We decided to head outside.

-Riolu-

Six hours later, I woke up. It was nice, the sun shining on me like always. Getting up and exiting, I saw Shinx getting ready to head off.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Just going someplace." He said.

"Someplace? When will you be back?" I replied.

"Maybe around an hour." He said to me.

"Oh, be safe then..." I told him.

He smiled and got on the ATV. He swerve outside the gates. I sighed and said.

"He's going to get badly hurt..." In my head.

I just headed outside and started digging for some stuff. Nothing better to do.

-Espeon-

"Ahgh!" I screamed, jumping on Umbreon like a wrestler. Playfully though.

The sudden wight shocked Umbreon out of his sleep.

"Are you joking?!" He shouted.

"What ya gonna do about it?" I taunted him.

Umbreon looked me dead in the eye, with an evil smirk on his face. My eyes sparked, I may have made him mad. Before I knew he launched up and tackled me.

"If you want to play, you better get ready." He said with a deep voice.

Umbreon was scary, but I knew he was just playing. We started play fighting, it got pretty intense.

-Riolu-

Half an hour passed, only finding dirt. By the time I noticed, I dug a good foot down. Should've asked Shinx if I could come. I wondered what he was doing. Climbing out of the hole, I walked back into the city. Covered in dirt and sweat. I was so bored, I found Emolga and Raichu.

"You two wanna go someplace?" I asked.

"And where will that be?" Raichu said.

"Just around, I'm bored. So do you want to do something?" I replied.

"I guess I'll go." Emolga said.

"I have Pichu. So I'll stay..." Raichu replied.

After trying to convince him, it was only Emolga and I. We headed to a nearby place we didn't explore yet. Called, emerald road. Emerald road was a road by it's name, made from complete emerald. I'd be surprised how much it costed. Like diamond road, ruby road, so on, so on. Walking the road, it glittered under the sunlight. It looked pretty nice. As we continued walking, Emolga started looking through his bag.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Well, I had a camera. I completely forgot about it, but I wanted to get it. This is a perfect picture." He said.

He finally pulled out a perfect looking camera. It had to be about 7,000$. It was one of those cameras with multi features. It looked amazing.

"Where did you get that? Back in the real world?" I questioned.

"Yeah, I won it. Looks awesome doesn't it? This will be my 256th picture." He told me.

"Wow… Anyways take your picture, I'll keep searching around." I said.

He set up the perfect frame, when I just continued searching around. The forested area around the road looked pretty. Due to it being December the leaves were all gone. December was depressing, all life dies during it. But at lease spring brings life again. While waiting for Emolga to finished, I wanted to try something. Grabbing my water, I poured it on the emerald. I just sat there, watching it sparkle under the water. It made my eyes sparkle with joy. Emolga was finally finished and got me. We continued walking down the road. After a bit we headed back to the city. Once I got back, Shinx still wasn't back. It was concerning. It was about an hour and a half. I gave it another hour, once another hour passed. I grabbed some gear and headed out. Hopefully Shinx wasn't in trouble, maybe he was just out enjoying himself. But I'll still search in the way he drove off too...


	18. Chapter 18: Lost And Alone

"Ouch! Stupid trees."

I walked through the forest, the sky turning orange. The thick brush made it difficult to move around. I've been walking for a good three hours. Still no sight of Shinx, it was worrying me. I'm still trying to believe he's just having fun on that quad. Or even, he already went back, and I'm just walking like an idiot. I walked all the way to, Neon City. This city used to be my favorite. At night the lights came on, covering the city in an amazing neon color. But it was lifeless, like everything else. At the time I didn't noticed, I walked way to far. Emerald City and Neon City were miles from each others. I got confused and lost my direction. After a bit, I was completely lost. Panicking a bit, I finally collected myself and headed in the way, I thought I went. It took a while. But I finally reached somewhere, looking on the map. It said, Nano City. The city next to neon. Maybe it was best, the sky turned dark blue. I just needed to sleep till morning. Maybe I'll have better luck during the day. Entering the city, I felt a bit safer then walking in the middle of the night. I found a house that looked secured enough. One door for one entrance. I went to sleep after a bit.

-Umbreon-

"Uh, let's not talk about what happened." I told Espeon.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. That's for the best." She replied.

"When did it become night?" I questioned, looking outside.

"No idea..." She said back.

"Anyways, let's get some sleep I guess." I said, laying down.

-Raichu-

It became night. Still no sight of Riolu or Shinx. I got kind of concerned, I barely know them. But deep in my mind, they're friends of mine. And I don't want them to get hurt out there. If they're not back in the morning, I'm going to go search.

-Emolga-

Today was pretty strange. Riolu and Shinx went missing, Umbreon and Espeon didn't leave their house all day. And almost everyone else wasn't out. It was only Poochyena, Braixen and I. Maybe one of those days. I was just sitting outside, staring up into space. Wondering if this place was a twisted thing in our galaxy. Or is this in a different galaxy. Where ever we are in the universe, I'll make sure to make it back to ours.

-Zorua-

"Take it." Saying to Houndour.

"What is this…?" He replied.

"I don't need it anymore." I replied.

"Uh, cool. I guess. Why are you giving me this?" He asked.

"Like I said, I don't need it anymore." I replied and walked away.

Sooner or later, we're all going to perish. It's just a matter of time. And I'm not going to be here when it happens to all my friends.

-Charmander-

It was hard. I just stayed sitting. The military was going to save us soon. I'm just hoping these last days are easy. Maybe, I'll just have to wait. Without Shinx on guard, I accepted the position.

-Meowth-

"Meowth…? Will we ever make it back?" Asked Pancham.

"I want to saw yes. But I'm not sure, I really hope so." I replied.

"How is your foot?" Pancham questioned.

"To be honest, I don't feel any pain. That water is magic." I said back.

"Really? That's awesome. I should grab some of that water, you know. In case." Pancham said.

It was scary in this place. Tortured, almost eaten. It's unsettling, I really hope we escape soon, I don't want to die in this place. This place needs to fight first. I won't go down without a fight. After talking a bit more with Pancham, we went to sleep.

-Snivy-

I was dead tired. I was up all day. Finally I was able to get into bed. I'm still wondering where Tepig was. All this time I knew he was missing, it was terrible of me because I'm not even searching. He's been gone for a good week now. I decided in the morning, I'm going to go search. Hopefully he's okay, knowing him he might not last long. He always been a scared little kid. So I'll try and search for him in the morning.

-Riolu-

I woke up. It looked like it was sunny out, but it was still dark out. Walking outside, I noticed it was foggy out.

"Just perfect..." I thought.

The fog didn't look like it was going away anytime soon. I just deal with it. After packing my bed and stuff, I headed out again. If I headed north, I may be able to reach Emerald Road. At the moment I didn't care about Shinx. He probably made it back anyways. Walking north, I kept an eye out for any landmarks I knew that were near Emerald City. I kept walking north.

-Umbreon-

"Umbreon!" Espeon screamed, jumping on me.

"Ugh, get off. What?" I said.

"What are we gonna do today? I have some ideas." She said.

"Let's not do the activities from yesterday. I'm still hurting." I replied.

"Aw, how did you know?" She asked me.

"I just know, I got an idea. Let's have some peace." I said.

"Ugh… I'm not giving you much of a choice." She said.

She pinned me down. I guess it's round two, great.

-Meowth-

"It's pretty foggy out." Pancham said to me.

"Yeah… Just stay close to the city. Those shadows will catch you off guard." I replied.

"I got an idea. Let's get Umbreon, Espeon and Poochyena and go someplace. Close by." Pancham said.

"Well, that depends on if they want to go. But I would like to go adventure around." I said back.

We went and got Poochyena. He accepted. We decided to just go with the three of us. Umbreon and Espeon were probably working on a project. We exited the city and started messing around.

-Riolu-

I've been walking around for a while. I did noticed a close landmark, Diamond Road. That's next to Emerald City. It took another hour when I reached Diamond City. Now I knew where I was. I didn't bother trying to find anything useful. I just went the way I knew where Emerald City went. Walking the direction, I heard something heavy in the distance.

-Military-

"Sir, we got the tanks in place."

"Those things no longer stand a chance."

"If I may ask, how'd we even get these in here?"

"It took time. But we manged to fit them in here. Don't think much about it, and go on with your mission."

"So sorry sir. Will continue on mission."

-Liepard-

"You got to be kidding me!" I screamed at the team.

"Please calm down." Floatzel replied.

"I'm ordering all of you to destroy those military units. Now!" I continued screaming at them.

"Uh, okay, okay. You're order is clear to us. We'll report our progress soon..." Prinplup said.

Everyone then scattered away. Once those military units are dealt with. We'll be able to fight Team Star freely. The military seemed to be paying attention to them. So we can fight them. Yet.

-Riolu-

I tried following the noise. But it got fainter till I couldn't hear it anymore. I was confused and a bit scared, but ended up rushing to Emerald City. Rushing back, I felt something push in on my foot. Next thing I knew I felt something trap it. Looking down, I saw some kind of trap I never seen before. I stepped on it and it trapped my foot in a metal box. I couldn't break it open at all. The noise came back after five minutes. Very slowly getting louder and louder. I started freaking out, and tried screaming for help. The city was right there, someone had to hear me. The noise kept getting louder as I tried to struggle and break out. Till I heard something I'm so happy to hear...


	19. Chapter 19: Reunited

"Hello?!" I screamed into the dark.

"I'm kinda stuck!" I added.

Sitting there for an hour, I got fed up. Starting to check over the boxed trap. I saw it didn't have anything that opens it. It was complete metal nothing else. After a bit looking over it, I stood up and started walking backwards. The chain stopped me after three feet. After extending the chain to it's maxed, I reached in my bag. I pulled out something sharp. Cutting the chain, it finally snapped. Once I released myself from the trap, I started dragging myself to the city. The box was pretty heavy that I couldn't lift my foot much. Entering the field to the city, I saw Poochyena on guard. I waved him down and he opened the gates. He saw the metal box.

"What happened? You were gone for a while. And what's that?" He said.

"I couldn't find Shinx… And this box was a trap of some kind. I need to get it off." I replied.

"Uh, you should go to Umbreon, he could get that off I think." He said back.

Walking to Umbreon and Espeon's building, I knocked. Hearing many noises, the door finally opened. And Espeon stepped out.

"There you are. Where have you been?" Espeon said.

"That doesn't matter right now. Can you get this off me?" I said, showing her my foot.

"What in the world is that?" She questioned.

"No idea, it was a trap. At lease it wasn't something like spikes..." I replied.

She let me in. She walked off to find some tools. I was just sitting there I wondered why a trap was there. Thinking back when I heard left. That trap wasn't there back then. Who set it up then. Espeon walked back in, with a massive ice pick.

"Whoa, where did you get that? I don't want that thing near me." I said.

"Oh, stop being a baby. I promise I won't take off most of your foot." She replied.

"Couldn't you just find a blowtorch? I feel unsafe..." I said back.

Espeon slipped the pick in the very tiny gap. She started pulling back. Once a few seconds passed, I felt the box open a bit. Ten seconds later. The box broke in half making Espeon fly back.

"There… See? You're okay." She said to me.

"That's good… Anyways thanks… Where's Umbreon?" I said.

"Oh, he's sleeping." She quickly replied.

"Well anyways thanks. I'll be going now, bye..." I said, exiting the house.

-Raichu-

Pichu was asleep next to me. I was just staring at the roof. After a bit trying to go to sleep, I got bored and got up. I was just pacing around, trying to find something to do. Wondering why I couldn't sleep. I hadn't had a nice rest since entering this place. Hours passed. I was wide awake, it started bothering me. Another hour passed and I had enough. Getting up from my sitting spot, I grabbed some stuff and walked outside. I started walking around the city. Walking pass an alleyway, I heard something. Concerned of a shadow or something getting in, I reached for my knife. Pulling out my chain flashlight, I shined it in and started walking. Once halfway in, the noise came from my left. Quickly flashing to the left, I knew it. A shadow, it was eating something. The light reflected off the walls. Alerting the shadow. It quickly turned it's crooked head at me. Blood, guts, all kinds of disgusting things all over it. The shadow's eyes got huge once glancing at me. It started walking, more stumbling at me. It had razor sharp teeth. The shadow was different though. It looked in pain. The way it walked, it was strange. I pulled my knife out and stood in a defense pose. The shadow continued slowly walking towards me. Getting a clearer view, I noticed the shadow was a, Leafeon. Female, about twelve years old. The Leafeon got right up to me. She started slowly snapping at me. I felt bad but I forced the knife down into her skull. The shadow fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"I'm sorry..." I said quietly.

The Leafeon's closed it's eyes, slipping into a sleep of eternity. So many died here. I don't know what I'll do if I lose Pichu. Walking up to the thing it was eating. I felt sick. It was ripped to pieces, it's entrails everywhere. It was mostly blood. But finding parts of it, I noticed it was the ripped apart body of a, Eevee. Sadness washed over me, I quickly ran back before puking. That poor Eevee. Death keeps coming in this place. I hope we get out safe, I don't want it to happen to us. I need to keep Pichu safe. Walking back after losing twenty pounds, I quickly fell asleep. At lease I found that shadow before an unarmed survivor comes along it.

-Riolu-

It was nice not carrying that iron box. I'm still worried about Shinx though. I hope he was okay. After getting into my place, I quickly fell asleep. Feeling like passing out.

-Umbreon-

"Ugh… Wha-?" I said groggy.

"Oh your awake!" I heard a voice.

"Huh…? Wha- what?" I said, starting to regain vision.

I tried moving. But I couldn't. My vision still blurry, I couldn't see much. Finally regaining vision enough, I looked and my restrained body parts. I knew what was holding me. My arms and legs were wrapped around with rope. Thick rope. My head still hazy. Able to see clear now, I saw Espeon standing in font of me. The worst part was, I was completely naked.

"Huh?! What the?!" I started to freak out.

"Morning! I brought you food!" She exclaimed.

"What happened?!" I continued trying to break free.

"You don't remember? We had a crazy night." She replied.

"W- We had?" I replied.

"I still have more fun planned!" She sang.

"Now here, eat this!" She grabbed some bread from a bag.

"No, your not force feeding me! Unbound me." I started squirming.

"Aw, you look so cute!" She forced open my mouth and shoved it in.

I felt so humiliated. I just continued squirming around. Trying to break free, Espeon tied these so hard though. After a couple more minutes, I gave up. I just let Espeon feed me.

-Riolu-

The sun was high up in the sky. I planned to search for Shinx again. He didn't come back last night, I got extremely worried. Just grabbing some water, food and a weapon, I headed out again. Hopefully not getting those traps on me again. It was about noon, it was pretty warm out. Still pretty strange for December in Yuka. But I didn't really mind, it was nice and I'm not freezing my thing off. Walking around the locations I found so far. Nothing. Completely nothing. Shinx was started to get to me, I didn't know where he was. And it's making me very uneasy. Trying to recall, if he brought a weapon with him. I'm not sure still. I really hope he's okay. I'll continue searching till I find him. Hopefully alive.

-Military-

"Sarg?"

"Copy."

"We've got everything in place."

"Good. Rescue mission will be a go in under three days."

-Poochyena-

I found some paint. I wanted to redo some buildings with decaying paint. Just to freshen up the place. It was nice out, so I thought it was perfect. Everyone else was just doing their things. Raichu walked up to me after a bit.

"Do you have a moment?" He asked.

"Sure… What do you need?" I replied.

"I don't really want to say. In case it causes chaos. But last night, I found a shadow Leafeon eating an Eevee in an alleyway. I took care of it though." He said.

"Wait, wait, wait. So you saw a shadow in the city?!" I said, surprised.

"Keep your voice down! Yeah… I think there was only one..." He said back.

"Uh, okay, okay. I'll keep this between us. Just don't mention it to anyone, okay?" I replied.

He left me alone after that. It was unsettling. But it was probably just luck how it got in. If it was taken care of, I didn't think much about it.

-Meowth-

"Do you think we're still safe here?" Pancham questioned.

"Not really sure. If we continued on making defenses, I think we're safe..." I replied.

We were sitting on a rooftop. Eating some stuff together, it was a nice view. One thing kept bothering me though. Is the military really going to rescue us. Or will they end up doing something else. I didn't let it go to me much. I just kept talking to keep occupied.

-Pikachu-

I started chopping wood and crafting planks. I started working on the front walls. In case we get attacked, I wanted to make sure we're as protective as we could get. The city had very high walls all around it, all we had to worry about was the front gate. As I was working, Raichu walked up to me with his sister.

"Can I ask a favor?" He said to me.

"Uh, I'm kinda busy. But sure." I replied.

"I need to go out for a bit. Can you keep an eye on Pichu? I would ask someone else, but you seem like the one I can trust the most." He said.

"Uh… I guess. Where are you going?" I asked.

"Just around. I wanted to see if my traps got anything." He replied to me.

"You… Set up traps…? Like food traps?" I asked again.

"Yes. I know we're stocked with food. But some meat would be nice..." He said back.

"True, meat would be nice. Ah, fine. Try and get back quick okay?" I said to him.

He agreed and left Pichu with me. I guess I could work on the walls later. I grabbed Pichu's hand and walked with her.

-Raichu-

I exited the gates. Quickly looking back at Pikachu. He seemed good enough to look after Pichu. I just couldn't let her with anyone else, it was a strange feeling I had. About everyone else. I continued walking up the hill. Checking all traps, I got nothing. I started wondering if this place even had wildlife. I continued searching each trap.

-Charmander-

It was very warm out. It felt really nice, I hated the cold anyways. I noticed that I hadn't seen Umbreon, Espeon or Shinx for a while. I would check on Umbreon and Espeon. But I decided not to, I just wanted to stay in peace for now. That diamond Pikachu gave me. I really did like it. Sparkling in the light and everything. It was pretty. I remember when I had a blood diamond. But I lost it. It was very sad. Blood edition ores and ingots are extremely rare also. I just sat in my house. Not really doing anything.

-Emolga-

It took the entire day. But I found some stuff. I left the city to search around. It was pretty peaceful out today, nothing dangerous in sight. I was still surprised that no shadows were here. Hadn't seen one for a while. It was pretty nice. Not fighting for survival for a bit. But that could change at any moment. Once I gathered some stuff, I headed back to the city.

-Riolu-

The sun started falling. I was still outside, trying to find Shinx. Still not finding anything. I'm really worried about him. It was starting to get scary. Shinx was gone for a good three days almost. Shinx better be okay. For his sake. I don't even think he brought a weapon at all. I walked around and reached a small town. It looked completely rundown, it looked like it was nuked or something. Walking into the town, I started searching around for supplies. Till I saw something that shocked me. An ATV.

-Umbreon-

"Are you done? Can I have my clothes back?" I asked.

"Aw, your just so adorable!" She continued in a sing-like voice.

"Ugh..." I groaned.

-Tepig-

"What happened?!" I heard a voice.

"I'm not sure! Try and stop the bleeding!" I heard another.

Coming back into consciousness, I felt intense pain. The pain shot all the way through my stomach. Once my vision came back, I saw four figures standing around me. I was laying down on a cold metal table. They saw me move and tried keeping me from moving. Before they hold me down, I looked where the pain was. I saw a bullet hole in my stomach. The pain from moving was so much, I nearly passed out. Two of them tried holding me down. While the others tried getting the bullet out and bandages me. My mind was shattered but I remembered how I was shot. It was yesterday, I was trying to find safety. But I stumbled in a grassy area. Before I knew it, these things everyone called shadows. They came from everywhere, next I heard many gunshots. There were about ten of them all firing at them. I think they didn't see me, I tried getting out of the line of fire. But was shot, I quickly blacked out beyond that. I wasn't sure if these were the ones who shot me. Or they found me. They kept working on my stomach. Trying to take out the bullet and stop the blood. They tried keeping me calm.

"Don't worry, you'll be okay." One of them said.

"Just keep calm… You lost a lot of blood." Another said.

The worst part came pretty quickly. They pulled out a nasty looking 22. LR bullet. The bullet split into two, shattering fragments inside me. They kept carefully pulling each tiny, tiny fragment out of me. Once they pulled every bit out, the worst part happened.

"He has internal bleeding. Empty the blood quick!" Someone said.

They grabbed a tube that pumps blood out of bodies. By that point I was way to weak. They started pumping the blood from my stomach. It was so awful. They kept doing their thing, once they're done. They left besides one to keep emptying the extra blood. I lost so much blood, I ended up passing out.

-Riolu-

"Back off!"

"Whoa! Take it easy, I'm not one of them!" I said.

"Don't take another step! I'll end you!"

"Please, I need to find a friend!" I screamed back.

I was hold at gunpoint. The thing that stood in front of me. He was pointing a AEK-971 at me. He continued pointing at me.

"Take off your bag, and drop any weapon. If you move, your dead." He said.

I did what I was told. He slowly walked over to me.

"Back up!" He ordered me.

I quickly took five steps back. He reached my bag and weapons. Continuing to aim he massive gun at me. He started searching my bag. Taking out all my food, water and ammo. He then picked up my weapons and emptied their clips. He threw them back at me.

"Try anything, I'll put a bullet in your head… Close your eyes and count to fifty. If you follow me, I won't think before putting a bullet in your head..." He said.

I did what he said right away. I heard the footsteps going away. Once I reached fifty, I opened my eyes. I was once again alone. Whoever that was took all my supplies. I needed to quickly look around for Shinx and head back.

-Umbreon-

"Is this going to continue much longer?" I asked.

"It'll go faster if you stop resisting!" She continued singing.

"Ugh! Stop that. I've been tied here naked for the entire day." I replied.

"But your mine, I want to show how much I loooove you!" She said.

"By torturing me? You dropped our project to do this?" I questioned.

"We had a project?" She questioned back.

"You forgot…? Great..." I said.

"That doesn't matter now. You better get prepared!" She sang again.

My eyes went huge. She had something very special planned. And I don't want it to happen. What I could say, I'm going to be in pain for weeks.

-Riolu-

"Hello?" I said.

I entered each house slowly. Defenseless now. If his ATV was here, I knew he had to be here somewhere. And I was correct. Entering an out-of-place tan looking house, I heard a gun click.

"Huh, Who's here?!" I said.

I slowly walked around the corner to a kitchen area. Laying there was who I guessed, Shinx. Seeing me he quickly lowered his gun. So he did bring protection, at lease I knew he wasn't stupid. Looking at his leg. There was a splint there.

"Hey..." He said.

"You know how long we've been looking for you!" I exclaimed.

"I've been here for about a day now… And if you noticed, I broke my leg..." He replied.

"How'd you break it?" I questioned. I didn't mention I was robbed, unless he already knew someone was here.

"Uh, something crushed it. I tried moving something and something fell on my leg. Snapped in two. Can you help me to the ATV? We should get back..." He said to me.

"Uh… Okay. Here take me hand." I said, reaching my hand out to him.

He grabbed my hand, and I started carrying him. We made it back to the ATV, Shinx gave me the keys. Once we reached the ATV I heard something. Looking around, I saw a shadow.

"Not now!" I yelled.

The shadow continued it's speedy pursuit to us. The shadow started sprinting insanely fast.

"Sorry if this hurts dude." I said, dropping him.

"Ow! Yep… That hurts!" He yelled.

I quickly reached for my gun. In the moment I forgot it had no ammo. I tried shooting it, all I heard was clicking.

"Ugh! I forgot! Shinx give me your pistol!" I yelled at him.

He quickly tossed it up and I grabbed it. The shadow jumped me, it tried aiming for my neck. I couldn't fire the gun. After a bit of struggling, I felt the shadow get knocked off. I looked and saw Shinx who grabbed my pipe witch I completely forgot I had. He smacked the shadow with it. I quickly aimed while laying down and shot it three times in the skull. It dropped dead. I quickly got up and picked Shinx up. Once I put Shinx on the ATV I quickly hopped in the driver seat.

"Uh, I have no idea how to start this!" I started freaking out.

"Just turn the keys. Then twist the right handle back!" He yelled.

I did what I was told. I twisted the handle completely back. Next thing I knew he were going 100 miles per hour.

"Slow it down! You're going to kill us!" Shinx screamed.

"Like I said, I have no idea how to control this!" I yelled back.

He quickly took the handles from behind me. He started slowing us down and drove us back. Shinx finally got us back after an hour. I quickly rushed him in and into a house. I quickly ran to get someone to help me...


	20. Chapter 20: New Survivors

"I think he'll be okay..." Poochyena said.

"Good. He's asleep right now, I hope he's doing fine." I replied.

"So, I was wondering. Why did you need my help?" He asked me.

"Well. Espeon said she was working on something. Pikachu was heading out. Mostly everyone was doing something." I said back.

"Oh, okay. Anyways you should keep an eye on him. I know it's just a broken leg. But he was burning up." He replied.

"I will..." I said.

Poochyena headed out and I sat next to him. Poochyena was telling the truth. He was burning up. It was strange, I didn't know broken bones can cause such high fevers. I simply just placed a cold rag on him. It was pretty dark outside by now, it was good I found him. Only if we had some morphine. I continued moderating him.

-Emolga-

Tonight was pretty cold. I guess winter was finally setting in. I still wondered if we'll have some kind of Christmas party. Would be nice. It was getting pretty late, so I went to sleep.

-Pikachu-

I should've waited till morning. I went outside just to do some stuff. The cold started piercing through my body armor, making me freeze. Once another ten minutes passed, I found what I was looking for.

-Pichu-

"Big bro…?" I said.

"Huh? What?" He replied to me.

"Christmas is almost here..." I said to him.

"Yeah, it is..." He replied.

Christmas was in twenty days. I wondered what we'll all do. Maybe something fun, I think we all need to relax anyways. It would be nice for everyone. We talked a bit more about what we'll do. Till we fell asleep.

-Riolu-

It was pretty boring watching over Shinx. I had a similar experience back in high school. Stupid Shinx was looking at a girl he liked. Like always. Then he slipped on something, I had no idea. And sprained his ankle. It was funny. Anyways after a bit, I got up and left the house. Just for some air.

-Meowth-

"Do you think we'll make it?" Pancham asked me.

"Don't know. Let's try and survive. As long as we have something to defend ourselves, I think we can make it." I replied.

This place was getting more and more dangerous. Soon there's gonna be something more dangerous then normal shadows. I know it. I kept trying to think of good stuff. I did wonder if there was something different then the shadow survivors. I didn't think much more of it. The place was eerie. Something seems to be growing. We should all be on guard, I decided to stay up a bit longer.

-Riolu-

Day arrived pretty quickly. I woke up, once again with the sun on my face. I didn't noticed that I fell asleep, I was really sleepy I guess. Shinx was still laying there sound asleep. He was finally back to normal. I wanted to try and make morphine. But I didn't know all the ingredients. I think it required something called Narcotics. I didn't want to try and give him something I homemade. Probably best to find another way to reduce pain. Getting up and grabbing some supplies. Hoping not to get robbed again, I started heading out. Not before asking someone to watch Shinx. Once someone accepted, I headed out. Maybe I'll be lucky and find some morphine out there.

-Umbreon-

"Ugh, finally." I said.

"Hehe here you go." She told me.

She finally gave me my clothes back, and untied me.

"You're so dirty. Go clean up!" She demanded.

"What?! You're the one who did this to me!" I said, getting mad.

Getting dress, I quickly rushed outside and outside the gates of the city. I walked to a nearby lake and started cleaning up. She messed me up.

-Emolga-

"Are you joking?" Charmander said.

"No, not really." I replied.

"So your going there?" He said.

"Yes. I'll be back soon. Don't worry." I said back.

"Uh, okay. Just be careful." He said back.

"I'm always careful..." I simply said, heading out the gates.

I was heading to a nearby military base. Maybe I could find some cool things. But I got something to do first.

-Unknown-

"Don't shoot! Don't sho-"

"Ugh… Another died, anything on him?"

"Maybe we should find more looted ones?"

"Let's keep searching."

-Riolu-

"Nothing, nothing, nothing… Completely nothing..." I thought.

I continued scavenging around a nearby gas station. I only found scrapes of food and random useless things. Only some painkillers witch could work. As I was searching around, I started hearing strange noises out back. It caught my interest, I slowly walked to the back door and slowly opened it. What I saw surprised me. Two random survivors looting the garbage cans. They were dressed in pretty normal clothes. Strange seeing that in this place. I wouldn't complain, I'm still wearing normal clothes. But what I could make out. They were an Eevee and Glaceon. It was a pretty strange pairing.

"Uh, hello?" I said.

The two jumped from my sudden voice.

"Don't hurt us!" The Eevee screamed.

"Shut up Eevee. Let me deal with this..." Glaceon told him.

Eevee crawled behind the Glaceon. Glaceon walked up to me very slowly. Thinking I would shoot them or something.

"Look, I don't want trouble." He said.

"I'm not bad… I'm just like you, a survivor." I replied.

"Uh, I'm not sure. I don't trust him." Eevee replied.

"Shut up!" Glaceon snapped.

"Forgive my companion… So your… Just a survivor?" He said.

"Well. Many survivors. We all live in Emerald City, I was just searching for medicine." I replied.

"Why medicine? And your apart of a group?" He said.

"Yes. A pretty big group. And I need the medicine because one of us are hurt" I replied.

"What kind of medicine?" He asked.

"Morphine." I said back.

"I could check with my group… We have that I think." He said.

"That would be nice..." I replied.

The Eevee behind him. He kept an eye on me, I wouldn't blame him. The Glaceon seemed way older then the Eevee, I wonder how old he was. After we talked they headed back someplace. I waited there for a bit, I wanted to see if they'll come back with what I want. Hopefully. I was just waiting till something loud shocked me out of sleep...


	21. Chapter 21: Christmas Time 1

It's been about two weeks. Shinx was finally up and about. Christmas was just about here, about four more days. Everyone continued working on their stuff, and I worked on mine. Snow finally fell last night, it was pretty nice. It covered all the ground with fluffy snow. The temperature dropped insanely fast, it was below freezing temperature. The snow turned into ice. About two days till Christmas, all of us decided to go out. It was cloudy, it wasn't the type of weather to go walking around for long. But for Christmas we wanted to have a little fun. Gathering everyone, I started planning out our route. It wasn't going to be very long. Just long enough where everyone can have fun. I way-pointed a couple areas to explore. Once everyone grabbed what they wanted and stuff. We headed out. A massive group, it was pretty nice everyone together. We continued heading out, hoping to find some cool things.

-Military-

"Do you think we delayed enough?"

"We have to prepare for the worst..."

"Yeah, but it's been about a month since we released those papers."

"Just wait..."

-Shinx-

My leg finally healed. It was still hurting though, I just tried to push through. Everyone was heading to our first stop, Ruby Cave.

-Tepig-

Waking up, I started slowly getting up. Only to get shocked with pain, I fell back down right away. The pain shocked through my body. It was so intense, I tried looking around. All I saw was medical things. I remembered that sugary I went through. Continuing to look around, I was also alone. It was dead silent. Nothing, it got me concerned, after a bit of laying there. I finally got up very slowly. I pain was still burning deep inside, but I got off a bed and walked out. I entered a giant white hallway. It looked like a hospital to me. They always freaked me out, I never liked hospitals. Continuing to walk around, I heard talking in the distance. Thinking it may be the ones who dug that bullet out, I quickly sped walk to the sounds.

-Riolu-

"Ah, here we are." I said.

We finally reached Ruby Cave. I read that there were pretty rare things in here. And it would be warm, so I thought it'd be a nice place to bring everyone. We entered the cave one by one, I thought it was awesome right away. The cave was filled with gems and stuff. We continued looking around for stuff to being back.

-Unknown-

"Man, an entire group? How many is that?"

"I believe I counted sixteen."

"Sixteen?!"

"Yeah, seems like it."

"That's pretty intense. They look well armed, should we chance it?"

"We should. Everyone just stay close by."

-Emolga-

The gems were beautiful. I love them. I just wanted to grab them all. Only if I had a pickaxe. We continued walking down the darken caves. It was pretty nice. But something seemed off, maybe just the excitement of Christmas. Who knows, I tried keeping up with the rest while thinking these.

-Raichu-

Pichu was always scared of the dark. She was latched onto me. The caves were massive, I hoped we wouldn't get lost. We continued deeper and deeper into the cave.

-Tepig-

Walking inside many rooms, it was always empty. The sound stopped for a bit. I thought whatever was there left. After checking the last room, I tried looking for the exit. Trying to find something useful, I started to get dizzy out of nowhere.

-Riolu-

We reached the end of the cave. After exiting the other side of the cave, we ended up in Sky City. We were surprised how the cave took us here within an hour. It was pretty nice, Sky City was a massive city. Filled with skyscrapers mostly going beyond the clouds. After talking a bit, we decided to loot the city, if it wasn't looted already. Once we all got to the gates, I entered carefully. After checking it, I gave the all clears and everyone walked in. We sat Shinx down on a bench while everyone else searched for anything to use.

-Tepig-

I tried to keep my balance. But for some reason this unexpected dizziness was too much. I fell to the hard floor.

-Riolu-

The city was pretty empty, only finding some stuff like metal. After getting done, I thought it'd be a good idea to head to Diamond City next. It was quite the walk but everyone seemed down with it. I wasn't sure how much Shinx could take. His leg still wasn't fully healed but he could walk on it. After a bit of planning again we headed off. But something happened. Something we'd had to battle...


	22. Chapter 22: Christmas Time 2

I woke up again. The room I was in was cold. Really cold. It must've been below zero almost. Getting up, I felt no pain, it may be because I'm freezing. It was really hard to walk. But I walked out of the door. The other side was completely warm, it was so nice. I think I was in a freezer but I wasn't sure. Once I walked around for a bit, I finally found an exit. Walking out the weather was freezing. But I still walked out and continued on my way.

-Riolu-

"Can we work this out…? Why do you hate us so much?" I said

"You know why. Even know there's sixteen of you, I'll still take you all down." Liepard said.

"Also, this place is filled with deadly things. And you still want to battle." I replied.

"I don't want to battle anymore… I want to kill every single one of you." She said.

"Ugh, I don't have the time for this." I replied, pushing pass her.

"Hey! Don't ignore us!" Floatzel screamed.

"Screw this." Liepard said, pulling out a combat knife.

Before she was able to attack, I quickly turned around and grabbed her arm. I quickly forced the knife out of her hand, and drove it fully into her other arm. I pushed her onto the ground. She screamed in pain trying to get it out. The other members of Vortex pulled out something sharp.

"Ugh… Everyone just stay back, I'll deal with this." I said.

Floatzel charged at me. I was surprised at his speed, I tried tripping him. But was unsuccessful. He tackled me and tried stabbing me. I grabbed his arms witch tried aiming for my chest. His strength was so intense. He was about to plunge the knife into me when he was knocked off. I started crawling back quickly. I saw that Pancham knocked him off. Liepard finally got the knife out of her arm and tried throwing it. The knife missed me, but it hit Pancham behind me. The knife didn't pierce the skin. The knife slit his arm a bit though.

"You win this time..." She said, getting up and running off with her team.

"Are you okay?" I said.

"Uh, yeah… It's just a scratch." Pancham replied.

Everyone wasn't bothered much. It was pretty interesting seeing some action in this place. Liepard and her gang was pretty weak anyways. No combat training. After a bit of settling down, and patching Pancham's arm up. We finally headed back to Emerald City.

-Tepig-

"Got… To keep… Going..." I said in my mind.

I was so tried and weak. After a bit, I found a good looking cave. Entering it and checking for dangers. I sat down and went to sleep.

-Meowth-

"Are you okay? That looked pretty painful." I said.

"Yeah. It's nothing. Don't worry about, I can take it." He replied.

"I don't know what's better… Staying with this group, or going alone." I said.

"Don't say that. I pretty much saved Riolu, everyone else was mostly frozen." He said to me.

"Yeah, but still..." I said.

We quickly packed up our stuff and headed out.

-Pikachu-

"Hey, how much longer?" I asked Riolu.

"Huh? Oh yeah, we should be back soon..." He replied.

It was strange, Riolu was acting pretty weird. Maybe the fight left him shocked. Not sure. But I'd be glad when we're back at the city. I still got some unfinished stuff to do.

-Riolu-

We made it back about an hour later. It was nice to finally unpack and relax. The battle still had me pretty annoyed. Team Vortex has been trying to battle us for so long. Now they want to kill us. Just perfect. Before they do, they need to work on their combat skills. Till then, I'll beat them every time. Suddenly I got a thought.

"Where was the military?"

The military was going to rescue us like two months ago. And I hadn't heard anything since that note. It was kinda making me worried. Maybe the military was over run by those things. I really hope not, it's our only escape I'm pretty sure. I started working on the flare gun. It broke somehow when I fell earlier. I was also worried about Shinx. He didn't talk at all the entire walk back. Maybe he felt bad for not trying to save me. I just continued working on the gun.

-Eevee-

"Gl- Glaceon?" I said.

"Where are you?" I continued.

I was separated from her after we were attacked. She was my defender, and now I'm alone. Continuing to search around, I saw my only hope. A city, I really hopped I find someone. Hopefully Glaceon.

-Riolu-

The sun started setting. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. And I really hope nothing happens. I just wanted a nice relaxing holiday. And now I'm trying to plan out how this will all go down. Before I knew it, I fell asleep while working on the flare gun.

-Raichu-

After a bit, I woke up. Pichu wrapped around me like always. For some reason I felt awful. I just had a pained feeling. Slowly placing Pichu on her bed, I walked outside. My head felt heavy and it was pounding. Walking out the gates, I made my way to the river. Leaning over the clear water, it was disturbed by something dripping from my arm. I thought I was bleeding somehow, I flicked the flashlight on and looked. What I saw shocked me. Black, sticky blood. I fell back and started panicking. Wondering how I was infected. After a bit, I quickly pulled out my weapon. Aiming it at me I pulled the trigger. After that I shot up. It was all a dream. Pichu was laying on me and I mostly launched her off. She woke up and questioned me. I tried keeping her calm and said I only had a dream. She fell asleep shortly after and I stayed up.

-Riolu-

I woke up, it was the day before Christmas. I was so excited. It wasn't Christmas with my family or anything. But my friends were my side family. I still remembered opening gifts with my little brothers and sisters. It was nice, but sadly I won't be there this year. That remind me. What was everyone back in the real world doing with our disappearance. My family probably freaked out. I was gone for a good five months. And all my other friends, their families are probably freaking out also. Shinx's was the worst I bet. His mother tries protecting him at all cost. Being five months I don't want to know what was going on. But it was Christmas Eve, and nothing was really going to change that. At lease time wasn't messed up in here. Or so I know. Everyone gathered around and started planning their days. Once that was out of the way, I started to head back to my place to repair the stupid flare gun. But before I did, Shinx stopped me.

"Dude, we have a problem." He said.

"Huh, Why?" I replied.

"We've almost been here for six months" He said back.

"So? Why are you worrying, we're alive still..." I said.

"That's the problem. I wanted to get out two months ago. It's going to be different. I'm mostly spending Christmas alone. It's new to me." He said to me.

"I have the same feeling. I do wonder why the military didn't come save us. I really hope they didn't die or something..." I replied.

"Yeah… I'm… I'm just going to walk around..." He said.

Shinx looked very sad. He isn't use to this, and I know the feeling. But we have to keep going till the end. I nearly died many times but he saved me many times also. He'll get over it, I really hope he does. I just continued on my daily stuff.

-Unknown-

"That was pretty interesting."

"Pretty short though. I was hopping there would be death or some stuff."

"Yeah, me too. But can't get what you always want. But really… Sixteen vs Four. They had to have some death wish."

"Uh-huh. Let's just keep watching them. Maybe they're the ones we could use."

"Yeah..."

-Shinx-

"Ugh… This sucks..." I said.

"What's the matter?" Poochyena asked.

"Well it's been about six months in this death pit." I replied.

"It isn't so bad, we're still alive." He said back.

"Yeah, I guess..." I replied back.

I was really annoyed. The military said like four days. And turned into two months. I'm about to find them and force them to bring us home. I just continued working on something Poochyena was.

-Riolu-

Before I knew it. The sun started setting. Christmas was near. Very near. And the best part, it started snowing that night. It was so pretty, and perfect because it's Christmas of course. I fell asleep shortly after.

-Charmander-

Snow lightly fell over me. It was about 9:00 PM. Snivy, Poochyena, Meowth and I were awake outside, just chatting.

"So, Christmas is just a few hours..." Meowth said.

"Yeah, what do you think of it?" I said.

"Not sure."

"Yeah, me too."

"It's weird. Not being with ones you really know."

"It is pretty weird. But we're in a big group. So let's try and enjoy it. Try and think it's your family." I said.

"I guess I could try." Poochyena said.

We continued talking for a bit more. After ten minutes we went to our houses and slept.

-Riolu-

I woke up with the sun on me. Christmas has finally arrive. Getting dressed and walking out, I saw only Shinx. Everyone seemed to still be asleep. I sat beside Shinx.

"Uh, hey… Are you okay?" I said.

Once I said that, Shinx out of nowhere wrapped himself around and burst into tears. It completely shocked me.

"Whoa, hey, what's wrong?" I asked.

He didn't respond. Just continued crying. I was pretty sure it was something personal. I just sat there letting him do his thing. Christmas may be difficult. But I'll make sure it'll be okay...


	23. Chapter 23: New Survivors

It's been two months since Christmas and New Years. It was February now, it's been pretty tough. We've been attacked many times. By survivors and shadows. I've been trying to keep it together, it's just getting harder. We keep keeping the attacks at bay but we're running low on supplies. The military still hadn't contacted us. I had enough, I'm going to end this. I walked into my house, and grabbed my newly found AK-74. And grabbed a lot of ammo. Put my advance body armor on and started heading out.

-Meowth-

"Ugh, he's at it again?" I said.

"Seems like it. But where?" Pancham replied.

"Don't know. He's pretty much lost it by now." I said back.

"This place broke him pretty bad… I'm scared to talk to him now." Pancham said to me.

"Yeah. Let's just keep our distance..." I replied back.

-Shinx-

I was just sitting in my room. Just crying to myself. I wished we could all leave. We already lost enough, and now it's taking our friends. Everyone seems so calm still, it's Riolu who I'm worried about. He doesn't seem anything to the Riolu I know. The military never replied to us, I don't think they'll save us. I want to be save, I just want to go home again. Again.

-Umbreon-

"Man, everyone looks like depressed." I said.

"Yeah, but we're not. Right?" Espeon replied.

"Yeah, I guess. It's still hard to see everyone like this..." I said back.

"I know, I think I know a way to change that." She said to me.

"Change that? How?" I questioned.

"Heh, come." She said, walking in a room.

I was confused, if she knew a way, I would love to know what. I hate seeing my friends in pain, we need something to fix that I guess.

-Riolu-

I continued walking down the pathway. I continued searching, after a bit, I found someplace. It looked like the place called, Crystal City. But something was different, it was also fortified. Metal walling, even turrets. I thought how they'd even get turrets. Walking a little closer, I saw a glimmer of a sniper scope. I didn't care and continued up to the city. Once I got ten feet from the gates, it opened. The one who walked out was a Furfrou with a pink little heart on her forehead. She stood there, after a bit she withdraw her gun.

"Well, you don't look like evil..." She said.

I just stood there. It was awkward.

"Not much of a talker?" She said again.

"Uh, no. It's just-" I was cut off.

"Just what?" She glared me down.

"I uh… Wasn't expecting survivors here..." I replied.

"Well you found a ton then. There's about 27 of us." She said.

"Ow, what happened to your leg?" She said, looking at my scar.

Even after all those months, I still had a nasty gash in my leg.

"That happened a while ago… It was when I was exploring." I said, hiding I had others.

"Okay, anyways you look tried. Here come in, you can rest here for a bit." She replied.

"Uh, are you sure? You don't know me..." I said back.

"Yeah, half of these survivors, I don't know they're just looking for a place to escape the madness outside." She said, walking inside.

She wasn't laying, it was pretty lively in this place. Once I walked in, I saw two survivors I remembered. They saw me also, we both ran to each others. The ones who I saw were Eevee and Glaceon. They seemed happy to see us.

"Hey!" Glaceon yelled.

"Hey there. Nice to see you again." I said back.

They reached me and we started chatting like old friends. It was pretty nice, hadn't had conversation like this since the real world.

"Thanks again for the morphine..." I said.

"No problem, it wasn't hard to get you that. I hope it worked on your friend." Glaceon said."

"Yes it did. If it wasn't for you, we'd probably still have trouble." I replied back.

"You look really tried though." Eevee replied.

"We've been having a tough time..." I replied.

"Well hopefully you'll be okay." Glaceon replied back.

"I will. Don't worry." I said back.

I continued talking to them for a bit.

-Shinx-

It was pretty nice out. I just continued sitting in my room. I didn't really want to do anything, it was hard enough. I could try and have some fun, I don't know. Riolu left about three hours ago and I'm here alone. After a bit, I heard knocking. I slowly got up and unlocked it. To my surprised, Pichu was standing there. She clearly knew something was wrong.

"Shinx, Why are you sad?" She said.

"Uh, nothing… Did you need something..." I replied.

"Brother wanted to know if you want to join us." She asked.

"Join what…?" I said back.

"Umbreon and Espeon had something cool to show us." She replied back.

"Huh…? Well, I guess… I'll be out in a minute..." I replied back.

I guess it was worth checking out. I wondered what they made this time.

-Zorua-

Umbreon and Espeon pulled out a giant crate from their house. It looked weird. I didn't really do anything today. We've been mostly defending this place for weeks now. Riolu was gone, it was also strange. He just left without a word. I hope he's okay. He use to be so happy and stuff, this place changed him for sure.

-Riolu-

"You said you've been suffering from attacks?" I was asked.

"Yeah. It's been really hard on us..." I replied.

"Well, you should come here. All of you, it'd be safer." Furfrou said.

"I'll have to think of it. I'm not sure, I'm going to talk to everyone first." I said back.

Once we talked, I started heading back to our city. I'm going to talk to everyone, hopefully they want to go also. If so, well have a better chance. Problem is we'll have to carry all our things over...


	24. Chapter 24: Shadow Of Pure Terror

"Legit?" Shinx said.

"Yeah, they're stocked and they have a lot more survivors." I replied.

"We should check it out first..." Umbreon jumped in.

"I agree with Umbreon. Even if they seem friendly, they could quickly change." Espeon said.

"Fine, who is coming with me?" I asked.

Only three came with me. Shinx, Braixen and Poochyena.

"Anymore? No? Okay then, we'll be back soon. Just keep guard." I said.

We all headed out for Crystal City. Being attacked by a few shadows. Nothing else really happened. We reached the city without much going on besides that. The Furfrou saw us and let us in.

"Welcome back." She said.

"Thanks." I simply replied.

Entering the city, Shinx and the others were looking around. Pretty surprised. They continued looking around while I just talked with the Glaceon. Finally after like an hour, Shinx walked up to me.

"I think this place is perfect. Everyone is super friendly."

"See, if we bring everyone here. There will be a greater chance of survival. Emerald City is sadly falling." I said.

"But, Emerald City is our home..." He replied.

"In our world. But not this." I replied back.

"I guess… But still. I guess we got to do what we need to. For survival..." He said back.

We continued looking around a bit more, I didn't get a good look the first time. They had survival shops, gardens. Mostly everything for the end of the world. We met about everyone, they're pretty much extremely nice. Even with all the stuff happening around them. Umbreon though still didn't look that sure. He just continued carefully monitoring everything. Another 30 minutes then we left. We were discussing how good this place was, Umbreon was lagging behind. He had a look he uses when he feels uneasy. We didn't think much of it, probably it was changing areas. Making it back to the city, we told everyone how good it looked. Everyone seemed pleased, and started making a plan to pack up. Planning on leaving in three days to get packed up, everyone left it at that. Night came pretty quickly, I woke up around midnight. I felt instant panic, it was like an evil energy was watching over me. Quickly getting up, I ran outside. Everything was red, I looked up and saw the moon was blood red. Starting to panic even more, I tried seeing through the red mist. I finally found a door and knocked on it. It was Shinx's place. He answered pretty quickly.

"Dude, what do- Wait… what in the..." He said.

"Yeah I know. I'm not sure what this is." I replied.

"Looks pretty cool though." He said.

"I guess. But I'm pretty sure it's not normal." I said back.

We tried figuring out what was going on when we heard it. A loud, bloodcurdling scream. We didn't know what to do. I leaded us to the front gate, and looked through the crack. Nothing was there, but it sounded so close. And it wasn't anything we've heard before. Once again the scream ruptured through the forest. It took another minute of us frozen in fear, I finally broke out of the shock when I saw it. A massive, blood covered, shadow. It's teeth could tear through anything, only by touching it.

"What the fu-" I covered Shinx's mouth.

"Shut up, we don't know how good it's hearing is." I said so quiet, I could barely make it out.

The shadow slowly crawled around, it was looking for food I bet. The eyes of it, glowed a blood red. Scars, arrows, all kind of stuff in this thing. It's side was completely gone as well. Exposing it's ribs and insides. I felt Shinx tremble in fear. Trying to keep him calm, it stopped. I felt time stop, I thought it knew we were here. After a good minute trying to stay as still as possible, it continued walking. It walked into the deep forest towards Snowflake City. I couldn't trust Shinx not to scream in terror, I had to drag him while covering his mouth back to his place. The red mist started fading as well. I dragged Shinx into the house and carefully close the door. Shinx dropped on the floor, shaking and crying due to fear. I thought he'd might be in a state of shock. I carefully kneed down to him. He was rolled up on the floor. I didn't know he freaks out so easily with these things. The shadows didn't seem to bother him much, but that thing. Was different. Carefully placing my hand on him, he flinched so hard, it looked painful.

"Dude, your okay." I said.

He continued shaking uncontrollable. I dragged him to a nearby bed and laid him down. I didn't want to leave him, so I ended up making a bed next to him.

"Okay, see. I'll be right here." I said to him.

He started calming down but still shaking intensely. That monster or whatever messed him up badly. I was pretty shaken up also. But I've seen way worst. So it didn't really affected me. I lay down on the bed right next to Shinx. After a bit of laying there, I looked over and saw that Shinx was finally asleep. I sighed deeply and ended up falling asleep also. Surprisingly I wasn't woken up by him. I thought he'd bother me every ten minutes of nightmares or something. But nothing, that's good. Waking up, Shinx was still sound asleep. The sun shining in, it was nice to see sunlight. I'm terrified of night for now on in here. I wonder how long we'll be in here. I really hope we get to leave soon. I placed a hand on Shinx, he was still pretty shaken up. Still shivering, it was worrying me. I really hope he didn't enter a state of shock because of this, if he dies from this. I don't even want to think about it. This place was getting more and more dangerous. Now they're a massive monster shadow that comes out during this red mist. I really hope none of us gets caught by this thing. The pain won't even happen. You'll be dead instantly. I just continued sitting next to Shinx trying to keep him calm. No matter how long, I'll be with him all day...


	25. Chapter 25: Moving Base

It was daytime. Everyone doing their thing. I just stayed with Shinx, he was still asleep. It was about 2:30 PM, I was just reading something I found. When I heard the door. Looking over, I saw Zorua walk in. He looked at me then Shinx.

"He's still asleep? Is he okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, he's just tried. Been up all night." I lied.

"How'd you know? You know, that doesn't matter. I just wanted to check in, we're almost ready..." He said.

"Okay. I'll make sure to pack our stuff." I replied back.

After he left, I grabbed two large backpacks and started packing our things. I tried waking Shinx up, but he remand unresponsive. I tried pouring water on him. Still asleep. I did check, he was still breathing, it was strange. Once I packed all our stuff, I placed them by the door. Once the did that Shinx decided to finally wake up.

"Ugh… My head..." He said.

"Finally, are you okay?" I replied.

"What… Happened?" He said.

"It doesn't matter, come on. We need to go. We're all ready. Can you get up?" I said.

"Yeah." He said, getting up.

We grabbed our bags and walked out. After all of us grouped up, we headed out to the city.

-Liepard-

"Fire in the hole!" We heard a scream. Then an explosion.

"Keep your heads down. We're near where the military set base." I said.

"Good, what are we gonna do to them?" Absol said.

"Not sure yet. Just keep an eye out. If you get caught, use your smoke bomb." I replied.

We stayed behind cover, waiting for an opening.

-Tepig-

I continued walking the empty roads. I'm so lucky to not encounter any of those shadows thing. It took a bit, but I finally found my way to a nearby city. It looked really nice and defensive. It was still pretty far to determine if it was, Crystal City or Nano City. I continued trying to reach it.

-Emolga-

"Ugh… This walk is gonna kill me..." I complained.

"Huh, you too?" Shinx replied to me.

We continued to walk to the city, I didn't knew how far this place was. Hopefully it was close by.

-Unknown-

"Are you sure, Litten?"

"Yeah, I really want to meet them!"

"Uh, are you sure, sure? I know their your heroes but, I think it's safer here."

"But I always looked up to them, I really want to meet them. I want to know how they got here."

"Fine, let's try and get to them quickly. Thing is I don't even know where they are..."

"I heard from other survivors, they're at Emerald City."

"Ugh, fine… Let's go search for them, I still think this is dangerous."

"Yay! Let's get going!"

-Riolu-

We finally reached the city. The Furfrou was sitting up in a tower. Once she saw us, she called down to open the gates.

"Whoa, this place does look a lot better then ours." Shinx replied.

"Yeah, I told you." I replied.

As we walked in, Furfrou greeting everyone. She seemed excited to get new survivors for this community. We had bags and bags of stuff, it was killing us. Sitting our stuff down, everyone besides me went around. I was just sitting there to guard our things. Glaceon and the Eevee walked up.

"So you did have more survivors..." Glaceon said.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Are they good? Because I still don't trust you fully." The Eevee said.

"Yes… They are good. You should start trusting us. If I was bad, I would've did something when we first met..." I replied back.

"He does have a point. Give him a break." Glaceon said to Eevee.

They both walked off, and I started relaxing. It was nice being around other survivors. It was getting kinda lonely over there, so it's refreshing meeting all these new survivors. After half an hour, everyone regrouped. They all seemed happy with the choice. But we still hadn't got settle in. Furfrou finally showed us to a pretty big house. Enough to fit all of us. Sixteen in a house, it's pretty strange. But I didn't question. We dragged all our things in and started chatting a bit. Looking over, I saw Shinx. He was just on a bed, away from everyone. I got up and started talking to him.

"What's wrong?"

"This place is nice… But I wanted to stay in the place we grew up in..." He said.

"I want to also. But it's safer here, just give it a few days. Why don't you come join us?" I asked.

"I'd rather stay here for now..." He said back.

I just nodded my head and walked back.

-Tepig-

I finally reached the city. It was indeed, Crystal City. Getting close, I heard the gates open. Three survivors walked out all with AK-47's pointing at me. I used all my strength to lift my arms. They advanced towards me, once getting to me. They grabbed the only thing I had, a knapsack. Once searching it, they threw it back and rushed me in. The leader who I thought was a Furfrou wearing a heart band around her head.

"Welcome, survivor. Strange seeing a Tepig here." She said.

"Thanks… Please, do you have a medic…?" I asked.

She looked me down and saw the bullet hole.

"Oh no. That's not good, yes we do have a medic. Just came in yesterday, I'll take you to him." She replied, leading me to this medic.

-Liepard-

"Now's our chance!" I whispered loudly.

We all ran through an opening we saw. Now we were in the camp. We just have to be careful, we'll stop them from interfering with us.

-Riolu-

We were still chatting, when I heard a knock on the door. Wondering who it was, I got up and answer it. It was Furfrou.

"Sorry to bother you already, but aren't you a trained medic?" She asked.

"I had some advance training, yes..." I replied.

"Well we got a hurt survivor. Bullet through the stomach..." She said.

"Uh… I never done bullet stuff. But I'll see what I can do. Where is this survivor?" I replied back.

"He's coming up, he's a bit slow. Probably pain. Do you need any medical things?" She asked again.

"No, I'll be fine. I already got my first aid kit in my bag." I said back.

"Okay, good." She said.

When the hurt survivor came in view, I froze. Tepig was standing there. I hadn't seen him in forever, I thought he didn't make it.

"Riolu…?" He said.

"Tepig…? How?" I said.

"Uh, you two know each others? That's nice..." Furfrou said, walking off.

Tepig walked in, and I cleared an area out. He took off his shirt and unwrapped his bandage. It was a pretty nasty hole. Came from a pretty big sized bullet. I started working on the wound. I forgot to even tell the others, before I heard talking.

"Riolu? Everything alright?" Braixen shouted.

She ended up walking into the front room, and saw Tepig.

"Hey, Braixen..." Tepig waved.

"You gotta be joking… I gotta tell the others!" She said, running into the next room.

Moments later everyone walked out and saw us. Snivy ended up pushing pass everyone, and saw Tepig as well. He looked at him, and Tepig at him.

"Hey, old buddy. Been a while… How long? Four, five months?" He said.

"I forgot to count… I'm so glad your safe..." Snivy replied, rushing to his side.

I continued working on his wound, while everyone watched. After a stressful two hours, I was finished. Covered in blood, and tired.

"Ugh… I wonder if they have working water… Could really go for a shower now." I said.

"Oh, I'll go ask." Shinx said, walking outside.

"So how is he?" Snivy asked.

"Well, I gave him some sleeping pills. And worked the best I could. He should be fine, once he awakes." I said to him.

"You the best! I thought he got lost… And you know..." Snivy said.

"Well, you should be glad he's safe here..." I said back.

"Yeah..." He said.

Everyone walked away and I watched over him. He looked fine, fever down. No signs of infection. I was surprised, an open wound like that in a place like this. Not good. But I tried my best, and now he should be fine. I just continued sitting there, resting after all that. I should really work on that, it took two hours for a bullet hole wound. But it's gonna be hard, in a place like this. I'll try and train in my free time. I just sat there, waiting...


	26. Chapter 26: Something Awful Coming

3:00 PM. Peaceful, we were just sitting around.

"Okay, so, what's are next move?" Shinx questioned.

"Not sure, maybe just stay here for a week." I replied.

"Maybe we could try and help these survivors..." Zorua added.

"It'd be nice to on their good side." Braixen said.

We continued talking till we heard a knock. I got up and opened it. Furfrou walked in, I was kinda confused.

"Uh, need something?" I asked.

"I just wanted to see how Tepig was doing." She said.

"Uh… He's doing fine. I manged to take the bullet out..." I replied.

"Oh good. If you need any medical supplies, come get me." She said.

Tepig was doing pretty good, I guess. He's sleeping right now, maybe it's for the best. But we planned to go searching soon. After a bit I grabbed my gear and went out. I didn't go far, it was dangerous alone. And I just wanted to sight see, I guess. Exiting the city, I started heading out for random areas. Running into some small hazards, everything else was okay. Once reaching a split in a road, I just headed back. As I doing so, there was something. I saw in the tree. And I wanted it.

-Snivy-

"Are you okay?" Shinx asked me.

"I'm just worried about Tepig." I replied.

"Pretty sure, Riolu did his best. Just wait..." He said.

I really did hope he'll be okay. He's my only best friend, we were mostly friends all our lives. I just sat next to him.

-Braixen-

I was outside, just meeting some survivors. They all seemed really nice, it was nice interacting with survivors. After meeting almost everyone, I started wondering where Riolu was. He left about two hours ago. Oh well, maybe he's just exploring around. Hopefully he'll be okay.

-Houndour-

"Well, I'm bored. What ya wanna do?" I asked.

"Serious? Just go walk around or something." Emolga replied to me.

"Ugh, fine..." I replied.

I didn't really want to go out. I don't know any of these survivors. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to go look around.

-Charmander-

Looking around for some random things, I found a strange glowing thing. It looked pretty cool, I tried burying it up.

-Emolga-

"Whoa, can I see?" I asked.

"Sure." The guard said.

He clicked a button, looking up I saw four turrets come up. All with high caliber guns.

"Whoa, that is amazing!" I exclaimed.

"I know right?" He replied.

The turrets auto targets at shadows. Or ones with the blood of the shadows. I was told. They looked awesome up there. Just knowing they can shred anything was so amazing. I continued talking with him and learning more about the defenses.

-Riolu-

"Ah, there you are!" I said, grabbing the item I saw.

Finally snatching it, I lost balance and fell out of the tree. Smacking myself against many branches. I laid there for a bit, in pain. But know it wasn't smart to stay like this. So I got up and went back to the city. Looking in my hand, I saw the little wristband. It was pure gold, it looked really awesome. Why I wanted it, no reason. I just love golden items. Just walking back, there wasn't much happening witch was good. I still had my gun equipped just in case. Never can be to safe.

-Umbreon-

"Oh, man. You got turrets?! Flipping turrets?!" I exclaimed, very interested in them.

"Umbreon, your embarrassing yourself." Espeon whispered, grinding her teeth.

I tried getting a closer look, but ended up falling on my face.

"Ugh… Are you done?" Espeon said, annoyed.

"Yes..." I said, muffled, face in the ground.

Espeon grabbed my feet and started dragging me away. I never saw turrets before, I only saw them in world war 2 movies, and books. Getting to see one up close was amazing. Maybe I'll offer help to improve them.

-Tepig-

I woke up. Still dazed by the drugs, looking over, I saw Snivy looking at me. Seeing me awake made him smile.

"Oh, your awake! How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Ugh… I kinda feel numb. Guess it's the drugs… Other then that, I feel fine." I replied.

Snivy hugged me gentle and gave me some clothes and food. It was nice not walking around with a bullet in my stomach anymore. And the thing that made me happy, I didn't get an infection.

"Tepig…" Snivy said.

"Huh?" I said back.

"Promise me, you'll never get separated again. I can't lose you..." He said.

"I promise… I'll never leave your side again." I replied.

That made him happy again. He gave me another hug and walked out to get some water. I did wonder, how did I manged to find them again. I thought I'd never see anyone again. Just death and shadows. I'll never let that happen to any of my new friends. I just sat there, waiting for Snivy to get back.

-Umbreon-

"Uh, hey sorry about earlier. I'm just so amazed about those turrets. How did you even make them work?" I said.

"That's okay. But see this remote?" He said, holding out a remote.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Well here. Go ahead. The green button activate them, red disables them. The orange is lock on, yellow is free aim. And here's the best part. Take this." He said, giving me a tablet.

"A tablet? Got games on it?" I said, joking.

"It does have "one" game. Press the green button then press that big rainbow button. But make sure to turn the tablet on first." He said.

"Uh, okay…" I turned it on. Then turned on the turrets, then press the rainbow button.

Before I knew it, the tablet collected to the turret. Showing the turret's view.

"Whoa, this is pretty cool." I said.

"Oh yeah, take this." He said, tossing me a remote.

"Now, move the joysticks. And press the A button. But don't aim it at us or the city." He said.

I started moving the joysticks. Looking at the turret and the tablet, I saw they were moving. It was pretty awesome. I was pretty much controlling the turret. Aiming at the forest, I pressed A. The turret burst to life. Five seconds later the turrets started firing bullets. It was hear splitting loud, but it was awesome.

"This is so awesome!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah it is." He replied.

I continued using it for targeting.

-Riolu-

I continued walking back, when I heard gunfire. I thought someone needed help, so I started sprinting to the noise. As I ran out of the forest, I saw the city and a turret firing near me. I started waving and it stopped. I quickly rushed over to the gates before it started up again and get me shot.

-Umbreon-

"Crap, almost shot Riolu." I replied, scared of what he'll do.

-Riolu-

I was let in by Umbreon.

"Hey..." He said.

"Did you try and shoot me?" I questioned.

"Sorry about that, I was testing out this awesome turret." He replied.

"Well do that when I'm not out." I said.

I walked in to the house and stood there for a bit. I guess it was kinda nice finally having a place with really nice survivors. I'm still wondering what the military was doing though. I hope they're planning a escape mission or something...


	27. Chapter 27: Military Contact

It's been three months in this city. The military did contact us. Telling us they're getting plans set out for us. And it should take about one to seven months. It was nice finally seeing the military doing something. Hopefully they rescue us soon.

-Shinx-

"Ugh… What are you doing?" I asked.

"I… Don't know..." Zorua replied.

I stood inside the house, trying to find something to do. Maybe I'll get Riolu and go explore.

-Emolga-

There was nothing really to do. But it was quiet, been quiet for a bit. The military said they're working on plans. Hopefully we escape this soon. There was nothing much to do, but wait. I volunteer to go on a search party with some survivors. I guess it wouldn't hurt to help a bit. Mostly because they took us in, without much problem. I just prepared for the search party. Who knows, maybe we'll find some cool things.

-Riolu-

After a bit, I ended up taking Shinx with me. Because he asked me first. But it would be nice to have some alone time. We don't have these times like we did in high school. Once we grabbed our stuff, we headed out to explore a bit. See what this universe have. Maybe there will be some rare items.

-Liepard-

"Are you sure…?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I found they're new location." Floatzel said.

"Good, we're going to move soon." I replied.

We stole a super weapon from that military base. And now we're going to fight.

-Umbreon-

"Espeon, why do you do this to me?" I asked.

"Because your an embarrassment..." She replied.

"How did I embarrass us?" I said.

"Well, you almost shot Riolu… Now you tried doing whatever you were doing a minute ago." She said.

"Hey, that was an accident. But come on, I wanna have some fun around here." I said back.

Espeon was to concerned about me. But I can handle myself.

-Unknown-

"I… I know he's here! I need to see him, now!"

"Damn, calm down. See who?"

"Riolu! I need to see him! I know him from high school, I know he's here!"

I must find him, we must be reunited.

-Shinx-

Walking around the forest, I got tried easily. Climbing these mountains and stuff, Riolu kept pushing me to keep up. Now I'm pretty much regretting asking him. Maybe when we do get back, I'll start training with Riolu. But I put up with him.

-Charmander-

"Psst, Emolga. Why'd you even go with this search party?" I asked.

"Hey, you went also. Just try and enjoy yourself. Maybe we'll find something awesome out there." He replied.

We continued walking down a dirt road. Trying to find any place to search.

-Tepig-

I finally manged to get up. Walking out where everyone was, I just sat with them. I wondered what changed when I was gone. But nothing really did happen, I just really hope we escape this. Because what I've heard, there isn't much more to do. The military did contact us, maybe they'll finally do something. But I wasn't pretty sure. Let's try and live normal lives till then. Problem was, they said it may take up to seven months. Not sure we're able to survive that long. But I guess we already survived a year already. Let's keep our sanity and we'll make it, I'm pretty sure.

-Riolu-

"Try and keep up..." I said.

"I'm trying." Shinx replied.

We climbed this massive hill. Finally reaching the top, it was an amazing view. We saw emerald city, snowflake city and neon city. I wondered how it will look in our world. Pretty sure a lot more awesome. We just sat on the edge, just talking about normal stuff. Trying to act nothing wrong was happening.

-Military-

"So, our plans are…?"

"Not sure yet. Just keep guard."

"Uh, yes sir… But we should really save them..."

-Liepard-

"Whoa!" I heard a loud gunfire.

"Hey, hey! Don't fire that! Now everyone knows we're here." I said.

"This rail gun is intense! Look at that hole this done." Floatzel replied.

"Ugh, don't use it till we're ready..." I said.

-Raichu-

Me and Pichu were just walking around. Trying to find something to do. It was kinda nice here, it was strange. The military was finally coming with plans. Now we just need to survive. I'll make sure we'll make it. Even if it kills me.

-Riolu-

The day passed in a blink of an eye. It was surprising, but we made our way down. Walking back to the city, it was time to discuss our plans. Our plans for survival for possibly another seven months. We're in a pretty nice location, tons of friendly survivors. Food, water. All that survival need things. But that can change. Hopefully the turret system and stuff won't let us get overrun. Now let's try and do this.

-Unknown-

"I think… I know where he is!"

"Ugh, really? Why do you want to find him so badly..."

"I just need to! Let's try his home city, Emerald City."

-Poochyena-

Walking around, I found a strange chest. Opening it, I found a bag of random stuff. I didn't really want to take it. But it had pretty nice things, so I took a bit. I wondered who it was from.

-Riolu-

We made our way back. We started discussing our plans. We mostly spent all night making plans. But we settled on one. And now we're ready. The next morning, I headed out just to search for some random stuff.

-Emolga-

"So… Uh, we're gonna search this…?" I asked.

"Yes, it may have some stuff." Furfrou replied.

We entered this strange looking house. More of a mini mansion. There was only six of us, but we search everywhere quickly. It was nice, doing something good for once. Till I heard something from the basement.

-Riolu-

I dug up some random things. Finding some iron ore and stuff. Once I packed up and entered the city, it was strange. I just had a strange feeling. Making it was nothing. But I hadn't heard from Team Vortex for a while. And I just had a strange feeling they're coming soon. Maybe it's just my imagination...


	28. Chapter 28: Nearly Done

"Fire!" I shouted.

We continued sprinting back to the town. Shadows all over us, we tried shooting them. But they wouldn't die no matter what. All of us gave up trying to kill them, and continued running to the safe zone. But they were quickly catching up. Reaching the place, the automatic turrets started firing behind us. After rushing inside, we quickly showed our loot. They seemed pleased with our help. Even know we were almost eaten. Shinx quickly rushed up to me, wondering what happened. I told him it was nothing, just another day searching for loot. After entering the house, I fell asleep.

-Military-

"Sir, are we ready?"

"Yes, we move in three days. Get the choppers ready."

"On it."

-Shinx-

"Do you think this will work? It's kinda risky." I said.

"Well, it's worth a try." Umbreon replied.

"Yeah, but still. It's kinda risky, what happens if anything goes wrong? Someone needs to go with you." I said back.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be back soon." He replied, leaving the house.

I wanted to go with him. But he wouldn't let me. He kept saying he wanted to go alone, but I hated the idea. If something happened he'd be all alone. But I guess I need to respect his death wish.

-Liepard-

"No, no, no! Kill them!" I shouted.

"Whoa, calm down. The military will do their mission in three days. We'll make sure they're gone before that." Absol replied.

"Well, what are you waiting for?! Go get them!" I shouted at him.

-Emolga-

Sitting around, doing nothing. I finally had something to do. Furfrou walked in, and wanted me to go adventure around. I took it because I was already bored. The group decided to go to an undiscovered location. So I think it'd be nice.

-Riolu-

Waking up, I felt so much better. Still sore from all that running though. But it didn't matter, it was nice facing a challenge. And when there's a challenge, I challenge it of course. Even if it tries to kill me. But that increases the difficulty, and I enjoy that. Getting up, I walked outside. Everything seemed normal enough, sunny out and everything. That quickly was interrupted by Eevee. He walked up and started talking to me.

"Hmh, I still don't like you much. But do you want to head out?" He said.

"Uh, sure…? Where are we gonna go? I was just out." I replied.

"It's just gonna be out a little ways. We'll be back soon." He said back.

I didn't really care anyway. So I decided to, another thing to do. Packing some gear, Eevee and I headed out.

-Tepig-

I was laying down, trying not to move. Snivy tried carefully stitching me more better. After finishing, I sat up very slowly. I looked at Snivy, trying to think what to say.

"Ah… Just relax, I'm not gonna go anywhere. I'm pretty sure we're going to be rescued soon..." He said.

I just nodded and stared out the window. Wondering what the others are doing.

-Riolu-

"So, uh, are you sure you know where your going?" I asked.

"Yeah, just follow me. We're looking for random stuff." He said.

He lead me into a darken forest. It was so hard to see, I couldn't go in. But he forced me in, saying there was a house there. Filled with supplies he thought. But going deeper in, there was nothing. I started getting a bit worried. Till I walked face first into something hard.

-Military-

"Choppers are ready to go. Standing by for three days."

"Stay where you are. Will give you the go ahead when we're ready."

"Copy..."

-Umbreon-

Espeon and I were just sitting around. Planning our next project. But not thinking of anything, and from boredom, we both fell asleep by mistake.

-Shinx-

About two years. It was getting kinda boring here, we've been here trying to survive. And it was getting old. Already seen what those things could do, and that giant thing. I wasn't even sure what that was. I really hope that never come back, it looked like it could destroy everything. But nighttime was approaching quickly, Umbreon came back not long ago. Bringing some random scrapes and things. And he tried making something with it. It didn't catch my interest at all, so I didn't really bother to check. But after a while, it was completely pitch black out, and everyone was sleeping. I just sat in front of the window, looking down the dark roads. I stood there all night, trying to spot anything not normal.

-Riolu-

We were stuck in the pitch black forest. Eevee was trying to find the way out, but it was hopeless. And now we're officially lost. We're now lost inside a forest, that I could barely see anything. Now that it's night, and we're stuck. Before we lose each others, we started a small fire. And waited for day. It's gonna be a long scary night.

-Pikachu-

I was outside in the cold. Walking around, making sure there wasn't anything inside the walls. But there was nothing. Something did feel weird. The night air, felt heavy. Like a giant dread washing over the land. But it went away pretty quickly, I still wondered what it was though.

-Riolu-

The sun shined on me when I awoken. It was nice. But I didn't have time to relax, I quickly got off the ground. And tried looking around. It was still really dark due to all the leaves. But I could barely make out light shining through them. I quickly woke Eevee up and we headed off. We manged to escape after an hour. I told him to never do that again. We almost got lost forever in there I bet. We slowly made our way back, trying to trace our steps. We made it back after another three hours, and we stayed there for a little. Before doing anything else...


	29. Chapter 29: Lost Of Good Friends

"Guy's are you ready?" I asked.

Everyone nodded. This was our final adventure here. Earlier today, the military contacted us. Telling they'll be there in two days for extract. And we're going to explore all day, trying to find anyone who needs rescue. We were going to do this no matter what. All of us. We're pretty much going to search Yuka for anyone in need of help. Before the military comes. We only have about 48 hours, times counting down. And we're ready for what lies ahead. Let's do this. We all packed enough stuff to last an entire day, and started our way everywhere that may have survivors.

-Furfrou-

I watched them all leave. Telling me they're going on one last search, to find any survivors. But I was pretty sure they won't find much. But they're group was big enough, about sixteen. I'm pretty sure they'll be ready for anything. But I'm not really sure. I'll make sure to keep the military waiting if they take to long. But hopefully they don't die or whatever. I quickly told them this, and they seemed happy about it. But it seemed weird, I still felt like there was something wrong. Let's just hope they make it back safely.

-Tepig-

"Why do I have to stay behind? I wanna to help..." I said.

"You're still healing, and I don't want you to damage your stitches." Snivy replied.

-Raichu-

We walked around everywhere. It was kinda boring, but if it meant saving others, I'll do it. It was still kinda hard. We planned on exploring most of Yuka, which is massive. And that wasn't going to be fun. But we're going to do it.

-Liepard-

"Are you sure?" Absol said.

"Yes, I know where to go. Just follow me..." I replied.

We walked to the wormhole location, ready to return to our world. Before jumping in, I glanced back. Angry to not get my revenge. But we'll get it when they return. We couldn't do it with military, it was to risky. So we gave up and left the universe. Back to our world, where we had everything. And planned our attack in our world.

-Military-

"Tomorrow is the day. Is everything in place?"

"Yes sir, we assigned everything to their place. And are awaiting orders."

"Stay in position. We're almost done here."

"Yes sir..."

-Riolu-

We didn't find anyone, and we searched over ten areas. I guess everyone either died or were in perfect hiding spots. But after a bit, we gave up. We already had enough survivors. So I guess it's good enough to head back. Back before we started moving, I looked over to a nearby cave. And saw a figure walk in. It didn't look like a shadow. In fact it looked like a normal Piplup. I stopped everyone and told them, and they wanted to see it. As we walked in the dark cave, I lit a torch and started looking around. I did noticed the footprints of said Piplup. And followed them, everyone behind me. But after reaching a massive ravine, I saw the Piplup continue behind a rock across the bridge. The ravine didn't look like deep. So I'm pretty sure someone could survive that fall. The bridge looked so worn out, it looked like it would break. But we one by one walked across it. Midway through, the bridge started loosening up. I quickly hurried everyone across. But once half of us made it, the bridge snapped. Everyone on it freaked out and sprinted across. Causing it to break fully. Shinx, Raichu and Pichu were still on when it broke. But Shinx grabbed on the edge. Holding onto it for life. I dived down a grabbed his hand before he lost his grip. I didn't realized Raichu was holding on to Shinx's leg as well.

"Dude! Pull us up!" He shouted.

I tried pulling him up, but with Raichu's weight on him. It made it impossible almost. Once I got Shinx up, Raichu grabbed the edge and let go of Shinx. But Raichu didn't grab it correctly and fell with Pichu. He landed on his back, looking up at us.

"I'm… I'm okay..." He said, clearly in pain.

"Crap! Can you get up anywhere?!" Shinx shouted.

"Uh, I think… Give me a sec-" Raichu was cut off.

"Watch out!" Umbreon said, pulling his pistol out.

Looking besides them, they're were shadows everywhere. We all pulled our weapons out and started firing. We continued firing at them, trying to keep them at bay. While they try and climb up. But they're were way to many. Before we knew it, one grabbed him and shoved him onto the floor. I tried firing at it, but my bullets wouldn't even pierce it. He struggled, as I watched helplessly. Everyone aimed at the one on him. And fired, but nothing was effecting it. The shadows completely surrounded him. Just ripping him apart. He screamed in complete pain, still trying to fight them off. But there were so many, he didn't stand a chance. I didn't even know where Pichu went. If she escaped, I hope she finds her way back. But I'm pretty sure she died first. The screams of pain subsided after a minute. We all looked in horror. As the corpse of him laid there. All those shadows just walked off. Leaving what's left. It was awful, and I couldn't look. Pichu not in sight. Maybe she did escape. I really hope so. Everyone sat there in shock, but after another minute, we slowly got up and left. Everyone dead silent. That was the worst thing I've ever saw. And he seemed so nice, and really cared about Pichu. I really hope he's in a better place now. Away from that pain he was feeling just a few minutes ago. Pichu wasn't there though. So does that mean she escaped somehow. Because if she did, I really hope she comes back to the city. We quickly left the cave and walked back. Still silent. Entering the city, Furfrou was confused to why we were so silent. We just went to our house, not speaking at all the entire day.

-Tepig-

Everyone came back, but they seemed really quiet. I would ask what's wrong, but I'd rather leave them be. But it still made me concerned. There group did seem a little smaller. I really hope everything was all right.

-Furfrou-

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"..." Riolu sat there.

"Uh, where did that Raichu go…?" I noticed.

"They're gone..." He said, in a tone that was barely audible.

"Oh no… What happened?" I asked.

"I don't want to talk..." He said.

Trying to get what happened out of him. But getting rejected by silent. I gave up. There was still a question I wanted to ask. But it wasn't the right time I guess. I'll try and give them a day.

-Riolu-

I was sitting. Completely still, replaying in my head what just happened. Before I knew it, the complete stillness forced me into a sleep. I can't stop dreaming about him. I really hope he's in a better place now...


	30. Chapter 30: The End

"Today's the day..." I replied.

"Yeah… I… I can't believe Raichu and Pichu died just a day of rescue… It's no fair." Shinx replied.

"I know, but we have to move on… They're in a better place now. Let's just focus on leaving this place..." I said back.

We both agreed and waited for extract. They said they'll be there around 6:30PM. And we didn't plan on going anywhere anyways. After what happened yesterday, we didn't want to risk losing another beloved friend. We made. I'm just hoping they get here quick. I want to leave, and never look back. I'm just focusing on positive stuff right now. Trying to clear my head, after Raichu. But it still haunted my dreams. His scream of pains where still ringing in my ears. But I stopped thinking about it after a bit. I really hope we're out of here soon.

-Shinx-

"Guy's are you okay?" I said.

Everyone just sat there. Slowly talking. Everyone was still in shock, so as I. But we were still alive and well. And we're being rescued today. After two long years, we're finally being rescued from this death trap. I really hope we can make it.

-Military-

"Okay, we're moving now. Fly to this location and wait there. We'll contact you when it's time."

"Copy, moving there now."

"Remember we're saving these survivors. Pick them up and bring them home. Without any incident.

"Copy."

-Unknown-

"There! There!"

"Huh?! What, where?"

"There it is! Follow me!"

"Hey, wait up!"

-Riolu-

It was approaching five in the afternoon. It was just about time. And we're all packed to go. We were just waiting outside, trying to heard any helicopter or something. We kept watching the skies. As it slowly turned orange then pink then black. After a bit, we did hear what we always wanted to hear. The sound of a massive cargobob chopper. Once it land, four fully geared military walked out. Looking at us, one talked in his radio, telling they found us. And to start extracting now.

"Are you all uninfected?" One said.

"Yes, non of us were bit or whatever." Furfrou said.

They talked a bit more, after a bit they told us to get on. I guess it was time to go, getting on. They flown upwards, and to safety. But once the weird looking wormhole was in view, we heard a loud roar. Petrifying most of us. But not me, looking out it was that giant shadow we saw some nights ago. Staring right at us.

"Holy Sh-" One said.

"What is that?! Pull up!" Another said.

But before they were able to, the shadow smacked against the helicopter. Causing it to spin out and crash land. After a bit, I woke up in a daze. Bleeding from my arm. Everyone else was fine, and trying to get me up. The military personal were died in their seats though. Breaking the windows we crawled out before it exploded. Looking up the giant shadow was right on top of us almost. We all ran trying to reach the portal. And it continued chasing us. Reaching the portal, we didn't stop. We jumped in right away. All I could see was blue and bolts of lightning. Then darkness.

-Unknown-

"Heh, seems like they made it out… They could really pull this off..."

Walking out of view.

-Riolu-

I woke up, not sure how long I was out. Slowly looking up, very weak, I saw everyone passed out scattered everywhere. All my friends and the other survivors. Emolga, Pikachu all those. Seemed like everyone got out, beside Raichu and Pichu. Crawling to Shinx, I used all my strength shaking him awake. He staggered and opened his eyes. Slowly getting up as well, he was looking around. Then his eyes shot open. And tried yelling, but couldn't

"We- We're back… We're finally back..." He said, weak as I was.

Everyone else slowly awoke to the same results. Once Furfrou, Eevee and Glaceon woke up, they as well was shocked. They weren't from Yuka as well. So this was all new to them. Regaining the strength to stand up, I slowly walked up to them. Helping them up, I helped all the others up. Looking in detail now that my eyes regain vision, I saw we were right back where we started. Mystery Lake. Just like when we arrived two years ago. I was so happy to see our sky again. Our sun. Our everything, it was so nice. Once everyone gathered their strength to get up. We walked to Emerald City. The other random survivors of that place following us. They had no place to go anyways, so we let them. Not going to abandon them after escaping. Once we reached the outer city limits, I looked at everyone. Worry on my face, wondering what it will be like entering our houses. Our parents mostly. We were either going to die. Or die from a death hug. But we made our ways back home. Entering my house, I called out in a very broken voice.

"Uh- Uh, M- mom? Ar- Are you uh, here?"

No reply. Slowly creeping around the house, everything seemed normal. Nothing happened to my room, everything was completely the same. I was pretty sure my mother was out, the car wasn't there anyways. So I was sure she was out doing something. I ended up making some food, in two years. And quickly ate it. Once I was done, I just stood inside, waiting for her to come back. I ended up falling asleep on the chair. And after an hour or two, I awoken by the car door. Quickly jumping off the chair, there was my mother. Grabbing stuff out of the car. After looking, I quickly jumped back off and stood in front of the door. Once she opened it, and locked it behind her. She saw me. Her mouth fell open. Dropping everything, she rushed over to me. Knocking me over, bursting into tears. She was unable to speak due to it. She hugged me so tightly, I felt my bones pop out of their sockets. After ten minutes, she let me go. Yelling at me, I tried to understand her. She continued yelling saying how much she missed me. Saying where I've been all this time. Thinking I was kidnapped or something. After explaining, she barely understood it. But not wanting to fight over it was fake, she accepted it. I quickly fell asleep, still feeling extremely weak.

The next day, I met up with Shinx. He had the same encounter I did. But way worst. Before I was able to talk, he quickly handed me a dagger. It had a blood ruby in the middle. Surrounded by dragons. It was called the Dragon Dagger. For some reason. He said he found it, in that universe. And he wanted me to have it. I accepted it, because it had a blood ruby. Which is worth over $50,000. Blood ores and ingots were extremely rare. They generate so deep underground, it's almost at the core of the world. Making them extremely dangerous also. But after accepting it, I quickly made my way to the graveyard. And made a self grave. For Raichu. With the words "We really wished you'd made it with us. Goodbye friend." After that, I headed home. Never wanting to think of that place, ever again...


	31. Bonus: Unseen Content

(Emerald City, 1:46AM, day 278 Shinx.)

"Dude, turn that off!" Riolu yelled.

"No man, I wanna record our adventure in this strange place. So we can replay it." I replied.

"Shinx, I'm warning you, I don't want to have something to remind me of this." He said.

"Fine, fine..." I pretended to turn it off. And put it in my pocket.

So, I'm Shinx. About nine months ago, we got sent to a strange universe. And we're fighting for survival, with this strange shadow figures. That could shred you apart without trying. It's a bit terrifying. But we're all still alive, there's eight of us. And this universe won't break us. Riolu keeps wanting to find a way out. But I keep telling him there may be something interesting here. We've found pretty good stuff so far. But he won't listen, guess he's trying to keep us safe. But he's pushing himself a little to hard. And we always try to get him to relax. Guess he won't be convinced. He's been in a coma for a few months also.

"So, Riolu. What are you even doing up? It's almost two in the morning." I asked.

"I already told you, I'm just checking defense." He replied.

"Okay… Anyways what do you think of that Emolga?" I asked again.

"Not sure, I did… Uh… Almost choked him. But I had to keep him quiet." He said.

"Yeah, he told us… But I think he's kinda cool." I replied.

"Well, I'm gonna get some sleep! Don't stay up all night." I said, walking to my house.

(Log one, end.)

(Unexplored Forest, 4:19PM, day 292 Umbreon.)

"Huh?!" I said, surprised.

"Uh-huh! I think he found the jackpot." Espeon said, crawling next to me.

"You really think this will work?" I asked.

"Pretty sure. Let's just keep an eye on the goal." She said.

Looking down the cliff, I seen about five survivors. All holding AK-47's. And it's not going to be easy, but we did have metal pipes. So I think we're okay, if we don't get spotted.

"Okay, ready?" She asked.

"Yeah, let's not die..." I replied.

(Log two, end.)

(Lush Forest, 3:00PM, day 283, Riolu.)

"Ah… I remember this place..." I said, sadly.

"Huh? You've been here? Why do you sound sad then?" Zorua asked.

"I was, uh… Here during high school. With a Meowstic. I miss her..." I replied.

"Meowstic? Where's she now?" He asked again.

"She's… She's..." I couldn't say the next word.

"Oh, sorry I asked… Let's just get this to the city..." He said, waving me over.

We started moving the giant metal piece to the city. This would do nicely for defense. This place, will never be the same. I have dark memories here, and wanted out of there as fast as possible. I was successful not bursting into tears in front of Zorua. I'm so sorry about Meowstic.

(Log three, end.)

(Emerald City. 5:12PM, day 300, Emolga.)

"Ha, are you serious?!" I said.

"Yeah, sadly it's true." Shinx replied.

"Geez, that must've been the worst!" I continued laughing.

"Man, you're easy to entertain. Anyways we need to continue repairing these defenses." Shinx said back.

"Yeah, yeah. You're right." I replied.

I continued to work on the wall. I'm starting to like this place.

(Log four, end.)

(Helicopter, 7:48PM, day final, Riolu.)

"We're going home then…?" I asked.

"Yes. We're taking you all home." The pilot replied.

"I guess this is goodbye to this place then." I replied back.

"How'd you find a way in anyways?" Shinx asked.

"That's classified. What matters is we're here to save you. Everyone was surprised all of you survived this long." He said back.

"Not… All of us… Ugh, Litleo, Furfrou..." I said, under my breath.

The helicopter with the Y.M.S logo on it. I was surprised the military came to our rescue. And we waited for our final journey to end in this place. Two full years here, and I thought it was hopeless. But here we are. Surrounded by military, taking us home. And I guess it's time to head home...


	32. Bonus: YMS Appearance

"Move out!" Our leader commanded.

We all piled on the helicopter, and headed to our destination.

I and twelve others, were planning our movements and escort missions. To start off, I'm a high ranked military personal. Of Y.M.S, and we were set out on a mission, to rescue eight civilians. For what info we gathered they were.

Riolu, Shinx, Braixen, Umbreon, Espeon, Zorua, Houndour, and Zorua. They are victims of the case of 1999. It's 2002 right now, and it's time to move. Now knowing they can't find their way out.

The case was still active, and was revived after they became victims. Not even the best scientists can find out what causes it. The only thing we know, is that victims to this. Are transported to a strange alternate universe of that region. And the region of pick now, was Yuka. The only thing anyone knows, is that the only way to enter the alternate dimension. Is a strange orb, appearing as many different colors. The user is somehow pinned to it. And haves the urge to follow it.

Next thing they know, is they awake in a strange place. With nothing, but death and dangers everywhere.

Now, this is the story.

We were tasked on the rescue mission back in 2000. But we had a tough time finding the wormhole. But in 2002, we found a way in. The eight were pronounced dead. And their parents knew that couldn't be, they hammered us to find them. And now, we can. But we all had double thoughts. It would be a waste of time, just to find all their bodies. But we were forced too. And hopefully it's not a complete waste of time.

Once we reached the giant blue wormhole in the sky. We flew straight into it. Blue, warping and sickening things happened. But a few seconds later. We were spit out into the strange place. Barely able to control the helicopter, we landed. Nearly crashing. Once we touched down, I got out. Groaning, being stuck to that sit for over five hours. The others jumped off, guns drawn. Scanning for any threats. The things we called "Shadows".

Black inky figures of dead survivors. They can be infected by shadows. There's a few ways. If shadows blood got into your blood. If you consumed infected foods or waters. Or if you die in this place. But for some reason, it doesn't infect you if you get bit.

Now, I pulled out my scope, equipped with heat vision. And started scanning the forested area. Everything was ice cold, so we proceed deeper in, still checking the area.

"Report?" My teammate said.

"No, not yet. All's to quiet, it… Feel's eerie..." I replied.

"True, keep your weapons and guard up." The leader said.

I pulled out my ripper pistol. Ready to grind something. But nothing was there, it was weird. After reaching a certain distance, our radio burst to life.

"Enemy movement near the chopper!" The pilot said, in a harsh whispered.

"ETA?" Our leader asked.

"About three minutes, heading directly at the helicopter." He said.

"Ugh, stay out of sight, be there in two minutes." He replied.

"Head back, quick!" The leader said, rushing back.

We all started sprinting back to our pilot. Once nearly there, we heard the sudden gunfire of the helicopter turret. We ran even faster, and once we arrived, it was a war zone. Tons of shadows taking bullets, without even flinching. We grabbed our weapons, and started firing.

Piercing their bodies. With little effect. With our noise, they turned their attention to us. We spread apart, and started tearing them apart with bullets. I was trying to throw grenades, but our efforts did nothing. No limbs blown off. No nothing, they didn't even stagger with the force. They kept coming.

And before I knew it, I heard the sudden scream of my teammate. As they sneaked up on him. Tearing him apart, we all started backing off. Till we ended up running. We ran across the icy wasteland, trying to at lease kill a couple. But once again, nothing was working. I started thinking there was no way. As I was running, I saw my other teammate, tripping and getting attacked. Without mercy. It was only four of us now, and we had to escape. Till I had an idea.

"Team, we need to get to the helicopter!" I yelled.

"That's instant death! We can't bypass them!" One said.

"Just make a massive loop! They stopped coming, we need to quickly start it, and fly off!" I replied.

Everyone seemed to agree, but it was going to be tricky. There was about 90 shadows. All running after us, wanting our flesh.

I continued to sprint, and lead everyone. As I made a massive circle, and a minute later. We reached the chopper. Everyone jumping in, and I, starting the helicopter.

"Throw the explosive!" I said.

One threw our only emergency explosive, and we flew off. Setting off the explosive, and a massive fireball went off. And what looked like them finally dying. I continued flying, not knowing how to fly that much. But our pilot took control after a safe distance.

We flew for a while, but after a bit. We arrived near Snowflake City. Landing, and getting out. I quickly scanned, but found nothing. I wasn't sure about it that time. But after a bit, and not finding anything. We set up our camp.

After a bit, we collected our things and continued our mission. The first location these survivors could be at. Is some of their home city, Emerald City. And so we flew midway there, till walking the rest of the way.

Arriving at the city, we did noticed homemade defenses. Wood, steel and iron walls. We quickly got over there, thinking it may be them. But once we broke open the gate, it was empty. And after searching for bodies, we didn't find anything. Next location had to be a nearby factory. We headed there.

As we were walking, we heard what sounded like low groans, and they seemed unfriendly. But also in pain. Looking in the forest, we pointed our weapons towards it. But moments later, the bushes started moving around, and we tried getting a better look.

"Psst! Use the heat vision..." Someone whispered.

I pulled out the scope and scanned.

And through the heavy forest, I noticed movement. It looked like a 5 foot figure, trying to crawl. And it And it was gripping it's stomach.

"Careful, somethings there. Looks injured." I said.

We continued pointing our weapons, as I kept an eye on the figure. It seemed to hear our weapons. Clocking and pointing towards it. Thinking we couldn't see it. It felt like forever, staring at the non-moving figure, as it still gripped it's injury. And another minute, it continued. Trying to move as silent as possible.

"It's continuing to move. Left side of us." I whispered.

Looking closer, I did noticed the figure was female.

"Hold up, female. Doesn't look like a shadow..." I continued.

We decided just to confront this figure. Possibly a survivor. So without thinking, I said.

"We know your there, come out. We're the Y.M.S, looking for any possible survivor..."

The movement once again stopped. She looked around, and slowly got up. After crawling through the thick brush, we saw who it was. A female Meowstic, wearing pink clothes and a flower on her forehead. Looking closer, she had a pretty bad hole in her stomach. Still bleeding badly. Seeing four guns pointed at her, she stood there frozen in fear.

"Gun's down." The leader said.

We did so, and she was still frozen.

"Pl- please don't hurt me!" She suddenly whined.

"Crap, her stomach. What happened to her?" One said.

"Shadows, sure of it. Rip through our skin without a sweat..." The leader replied.

I slowly walked up to her. And pulled out a vaccine shot.

"Give me your arm..." I replied.

She reached her arm out. Shaking so hard, it was hard to inject her. Doing so made her flinch with pain. But I was done, and she quickly lowered her arm.

"That will prevent any infection. And will cure what's inside you, if those shadows got anything in you..." I replied.

"You're safer with us. Come with us, we're currently on a mission to rescue anyone we come across." The leader said to her.

She stuttered a simple okay, and we were on our way. Talking along the way.

"So, how'd you get here? You know how dangerous this place is?" I said.

"I… I wanted to find someone… I heard he was in here… And I found a way in, I wanted to see him… And bring him safely home..." She said.

"Don't you know, this is a death trap. Should've let us do the work..." I said back.

"I hadn't seen him since high school. And we shared a special bond together, I didn't want him to die here." She replied.

"Yeah, still… And who is that?" I asked.

"Riolu… We met all those years ago. And we instantly fell in love. I can't bare to think what's happening to him now." She said back.

"You're in luck then… Our mission is to rescue them… Just stay behind us, okay?" I said.

We continued walking to the factory. And once we were there, I noticed it was completely raided and destroyed. Walking inside, we did noticed it had been occupied. But it was drained out. Searching around, we did noticed, all the supplies that was left behind. Food, building supplies, ammo, even weapons.

Checking around, we made an awful discovered. Carved in what we think was blood. T.V, it instantly shocked us. Meowstic freaked out.

"Team Vortex?! No, no no! What are they doing here?! No! Riolu!"

"I don't know. Keep your guard, and shoot them if you find them." The leader ordered.

The Meowstic started breathing heavily, and ran out the doors.

"No wait!" I said, running after her.

"Hey, where are you going?!" The leader said.

I continued chasing right behind her. Dodging branches, cliffs and everything. We continued doing a chase throughout the forest. Down dirt paths, and even through water. Till she stopped out of nowhere.

"Riolu! I'm coming!" She screamed, voice shattered.

And she ran to Emerald City in front of her.

"It's emptied, we looked!" I tried telling her.

She continued running through the pathway down to the city.

"She's gonna get herself killed..." I thought.

She slammed into the broken doors, and opened them quickly. Hastily looking around. After she couldn't find anything, she fell and cried.

"Jeez, your really crazy for this survivor..." I said.

"I… I know he's been here..." She replied, through broken gasps of breath.

She then got up, and quickly opened a nearby door. She walked in, and seconds later, she ran out. Pouring tears.

"This… This is his!" She replied.

She was holding a golden bandanna.

"And… This was Shinx's..." She added.

Holding another bandanna which was blue. With a lightning bolt on it. She held them close, and started crying harder.

"If you makes you feel any better… We didn't find their bodies here… They may still be alive..." I said.

She looked up, still pouring tears, and got up.

"I need… Him..." She said.

I convinced her to follow me back. And we headed to my team, before they left me behind. They were pretty mad at me rushing off like that. But were glad we didn't get killed. And not finding much more in the abandoned factory, we headed to a cave. We got an update, there were movement at the cave about three days ago. And we thought they couldn't be that far.

And with that, we made our long journey to our helicopter and flew to the location.

I just sat in the backseat. Staring down behind, just seeing shadows. Flying over blackbird city, emerald city, neon city. Even nano city, and nothing. No survivors at all, just shadows and ripped apart bodies. But after an hour, we arrived at the cave.

Getting out, I quickly scanned the inside of the caves. To find a few heat figures.

"Keep your guard up. I see about eight to ten heat signs." I said.

Keeping our guns drawn, we ventured deeper into the caves. Trying to keep Meowstic on top of us.

We reached a broken bridge midway through. Looking down was a massive ravine. Didn't look far down though, and down below, we saw blood everywhere. Torn clothes and a pistol. Nothing else. Whoever got stuck down there, may have been ambushed by shadows. And tried defending them off. But failed, and suffered something worst then death.

Finding no way around, I jumped down. As well as everyone, and we looked for an opening down below. And following one side, we did find an exit. And gladly left, exiting it, we saw a city in the distance. We found it to be Crystal City. And so we head there, hopping there will be something.

But walking through the pathway, I heard many different growls. Looking in the forest, the eyes of blood stared at me.

"Gu- guy? Uh, speed up..." I whispered.

They all noticed the eyes staring at us, and we picked our speed up. We were split into two groups. Three in front and two behind. But crossing the next bridge. It collapsed. Causing two of us to stay behind. And that was the pilot and Meowstic.

"Guy's you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, nearly fell… But what are we going to do now?" He said back.

"Bring the chopper to Crystal City, we possibly need an escape plan." I replied.

The pilot agreed, and dragged Meowstic with him. And after a few seconds, they disappeared in the forest.

"Crap man, I hope they'll be okay..." My teammate said.

"Don't worry, they will save us, I know it… I have a bad feeling." I replied.

We continued walking to crystal city. Not seeing those eyes anymore. And we reached it without any problem.

Walking up to it, I noticed turrets, which was really strange. But they ended up targeting us, and started firing.

"Get to cover!" I yelled.

We all ducked behind trees and rocks. The turret continued firing for a good minute till they shut down.

"Retreat!" I said, rushing back.

We ended up getting to a safe distance. I wasn't expecting turrets here, and hostile. We just waited for our ride. And an hour later, I heard the faint sound of the blades from it. And within two minutes, it landed in a cleared area. And we hopped in. But Meowstic wasn't on.

"Uh, where's the survivor?" I asked.

"I returned her to the real world. I couldn't risk her dying. Our paychecks depend on their safety..." He laughed a bit.

"Uh-huh… Anyways, we did reach Crystal City. But it had enemy turrets, almost torn us apart." I said.

"I think it was a mistake. Unless it's a bandit group…" He said.

We decided to fly in, and hopefully they wouldn't shoot us down. And that's what we did.

Flying in, we landed on a stripe for flyable vehicles, and jumped out.

At that time, it was around five in the afternoon. When we landed. The sky turned that orange, pinkish color. Then black. We saw around 30 survivors. And our targets staring at us.

"Survivors found." The leader said in his radio.

I didn't want to take any chances.

"Are you all uninfected?" I asked.

"Yes, non of us were bit or whatever." The Furfrou said.

After hearing that, we started talking.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

"Yeah, let's bring them home." Our leader said.

We gestured for them to hop in. And they did, we started taking off, and flew to the wormhole.

The portal was in view, when we heard the sound of a giant roar. Looking around, we noticed a massive monster appearing from the ground.

"Holy Sh-" I said, stuttering.

"What is that?! Pull up!" One said.

Before we could do anything, the thing attacked our chopper tail. Making us spin out. We tried forcing it back, but was unsuccessful. We crashed, hard. Making me black out.

About a minute later, I heard glass shattering. I saw the other survivors gone, and my team dead. But somehow my leader survived, and rushed me out. Moments later, it exploded our other teammates, now dead if they weren't. We tried running towards the portal. And made it within inches, and we saw blue. Then blackness.

When I awoke, I saw myself in Crystal Lake. And my leader next to me. I shook him awake, and we wondered where we were for a second. But found out we're at Crystal Lake. Our radios turned on.

"Mission completed. The survivors made it out safely. Total of 18. Good work, return to base." Our Sargent said.

"Uh, we need pickup… We barely made it out, our chopper was destroyed..." I replied.

"Copy, sending emergency pickup. Tracking your location, stay placed..." He replied.

And with that, we stayed. Then was picked up half an hour later. Glad we made it out, but sadly not our other teammates. Back at base, everyone congratulated us. But it didn't feel the same, due to our other teammates not being there. But we accepted it, happy to be back. Nearly dying.

And with that, I was sent on vacation. I gladly took it, and went to Gaco for a bit to clear my head. While my leader of that mission. Stayed put and enjoyed his time off...


	33. Bonus: Riolu's Coma

"Wait!" I yelled.

"Wait Ple-" I was cut off, as I saw the flash of the barrel an intense pain. He shot me through the arm, chest, and leg. I dropped to the floor with a heavy thud, as my vision and hearing faded.

"Th- This… Is… It..." I thought as I slowly died on the floor.

The last thing I saw was the three standing over me. They looked for a couple more seconds then left without saying anything. Moments later I fell unconscious, facing my faith.

But then, I heard shattering of glass through echoing hearing. And a minute later, I felt moved, even know I was numb all around. Then I heard it.

"I found Riolu! I need help!"

I opened my eyes for a second, and saw Shinx sitting next to me. Tears in his eyes. Then blackness.

I thought I was died. But I opened my eyes in an extremely green forest. Looking at my body, I saw that I was transparent.

"I'm… I died…?" I thought.

I walked through the forest, crying along the way. And after wondering around for what felt like hours, I reached the first structure I seen so far. Trying to knock on the door. There wasn't a response. Guess there wouldn't if this was my own death vision. Then I heard it. A faint sound of footsteps, not inside. But walking up behind me, I quickly turned around. And saw a transparent Litleo and Furfrou.

"It's a shame..." It said in a ghostly voice.

"What…? Wait. A Litleo and Furfrou? No..." I said.

"We did appreciate your help. Guess we didn't live that long… And now your in this place. We watched over you, only if you listened to my voice. You would've lived." Furfrou said.

"At lease you brought us together again. That pain, I never want to feel again." Litleo said.

"But hey, don't worry. You're in a coma. Not dead, if you didn't have that body armor… That bullet would've struck your heart." Furfrou added.

I fell on my knees.

"Why is it like this?! Why do we have to suffer! All we wanted to do was have fun in the real world… And now I'm possibly dead!" I said.

"We know how you feel. I faced a death way worst. I'm never going to see my little sister again, so I know how you feel. You're friends found you, and your back at that place again." Furfrou said.

"Huh? Wait. They found me so soon?" I asked.

"We were watching them, they were close. But not fast enough to stop your shooters. We tried to stop you from opening the door. But we were unsuccessful… Sorry for that pain." Litleo said.

"Are you the voices I heard?" I asked again.

"No. It may have been another lost soul. We didn't want to communicate with you, in case something happened." Furfrou responded.

"It said the group was dangerous. And it somehow convinced me to leave them, and into that cabin..." I said back.

"Shouldn't have listen… But your still alive. This place is between life and death. This is a place where whoever dies in this place. You're soul just wonders forever and ever. But your still living, you can still leave this place. The problem is, you need to find your wondering soul. You see how your transparent? Well that's your soul leaving you. Make sure to look at yourself every so often. If you regain color and become less transparent, your near your soul. If you see your soul, which is a blue orb, try and catch it." Furfrou gave me a long explain.

"But watch out. Other lost souls may try and steal your soul, and body. So you have to find it quickly..." Litleo said.

I got up, and looked at myself. I was completely invisible almost.

"How do I know…?" I asked.

"You're soul? It's your soul, you can see it through your vision. Even through solid objects. Give a scan right now." Furfrou said.

I tried looking around, and I saw a faint blue through some trees. But it was about four miles away.

"I… I think I see it." I replied.

"We're lost already. So you chase your soul. We wish you the best of luck." Litleo said.

"I'm sorry, I failed you both. I wanted everyone to make it out, but I failed." I turned back.

"Don't worry about it. We know you tried your best, anyways get going." Furfrou said.

And with that, I ran after my soul. Passing many lost souls along the way. Just staring me up and down, I felt uneasy. But I continued running after it, but it didn't look like it was getting closer. In fact, it looked like it was getting further from me.

I ended up running into a random house. Trying to search for something that could make transport easier. But found a bike. A bike cycle. I was trying to find a motorcycle or even a car. But I guess a bike will do. I hop on it, and started racing towards the orb. And about ten minutes, I grew extremely tired. But I kept pushing myself to reach my soul.

But after another minute, I couldn't peddle anymore. I fell off, not able to get up for a few seconds. After I got up, I continued to run to my soul.

Once I reached a plains looking area, I looked on a stone, and my soul rested there. Just floating. My legs were killing me for peddling, and running right after. But I got to the stone, and started climbing it. Feeling my legs shooting with pain and a fire feeling. I reached my hand on the top, and peeked over to see my soul. It was right there, and when I tried reaching for it. The orb started floating away.

"Hey, wait!" I shouted.

I quickly climbed the last stone, and got on top. Looking down, my soul had reached ground level, and floated in the forest.

"Wait, please!" I shouted again.

Not caring, I jumped the forty feet down. Doing a roll. Not sure how I didn't injure myself, but I was so glad. I started sprinting after the orb, trying to grab it, as it was just out of reach.

"Wait!" I screamed chasing the orb.

"Please!" I continued sprinting through the forest.

Rushing through the brush and greenery, I ran out to a giant lake. Not wanting to linger to see the view, I continued searching. But noticed the orb was underwater. I didn't care, I dove in, trying to swim as fast as I could. Even with my clothes. The orb continued it's swift movements out the water, as I was struggling getting out. I tried screaming, but water filled my mouth. I wasn't going to give up, I swam on shore, and continued sprinting.

After a few more minutes running after it. The orb stopped on the pillar. I kept sprinting, but something grabbed my foot, making me face plant onto the grass. Looking back, I saw a bony figure. Too bony to make how any details. It wrapped it's hand around my leg, tightening it's grip.

"You'll… Never… Leave..." It said, in this sinister voice.

"Get off me!" I said, kicking it's arm.

After a good hit, it released and hissed at me. I quickly turned and got up. I quickly jumped and grabbed my orb. But I didn't noticed, it was over a massive cliff. And I dived over it. But hitting everything, I didn't feel pain. I held onto my orb with my nearly dead life. But holding onto it even tighter. It started surrounded myself in this bright blue mist. Next thing I knew, I opened my eyes again.

I was in a dark forest.

"This… Way..." A voice rang throughout it.

My breathing increased, this voice sounded like a demon. With a low growl. I felt watched. This was probably my version of the underworld. I walked around, and it felt uneasy, giving me a massive amount of dread.

"Closer..." It said.

"Help… Me..." It added.

I was petrified. But somehow, I continued walking through the deep forest.

"Please. I'm lost. Please find me." It said.

The forest continued to get darker and darker. Till it was completely pitch black, only glowing faintly. It was starting to unnerve me, I don't know what this place was.

"Why I'm I here?" I asked myself.

I grabbed my soul, but I don't know why I appeared here. I thought I would've woke up, and continue living. But now I'm in this place, it was scaring me. And I'm possibly dead by now.

"Please, help me. You're so close." It echoed through the forest.

After standing there in fear for a bit, I continued my way to this voice. But when I walked up to a statue, I heard static. My vision got blurry, and the static in my ears intensified. I turned around. And looked around, it was scaring me. As I scanned the forest, the static was so loud, my ears started hurting. But I didn't check my back, as I felt a hand on my shoulder. Quickly turning around, I tried punching whatever was behind me. But all I saw was black smoke fading away.

"Stop this!" I yelled.

But once I lay down. Accepting my demonic world, I was then touched. Looking through my teary eyes, I saw a white figure. But couldn't make it out. It continued to sit next to me, but soon getting up, and talking.

"It's time to head back..." In it's ghostly voice.

I was then wrapped in a misty white orb. And my eyes shot opened. Staring at a metal like ceiling. Looking around, I was wrapped in blankets on a bed.

"I'm… I back?" I thought.

Getting up, my head felt so pained. It felt like exploding. Unwrapping the blankets from me, I got up, nearly falling over. My body ached all around, and I could barely grip the door nob and opened it. But when I opened it, I saw all my friends. I was so relieved, and I spoke...


End file.
